Intended to be a Smithsonian-like reincarnation, Massey Energy’s restoration of the Matewan Depot is another example of Massey’s commitment to the communities where it operates. The Matewan Depot is one of the most historically significant railroad stations to stand along the 673-mile Norfolk & Western main line.
In many communities across the country, the depot was the center of community life. As passengers boarded trains like Nos. 15 and 16 (later christened The Cavalier), the telegraph clicked off train orders and Western Union messages.
Its sturdy platforms and baggage carts bulged with everything from heavy mining machinery to boxcar loads of goods for company stores, crates of squawking chickens, mail order notions from the Sears-Roebuck catalog, and letters from afar.
The depot received national notoriety on May 19, 1920 when a deadly shootout took place between Baldwin-Felts mine guards and striking United Mine Workers factions back up by Matewan Chief of Police “Two-Gun” Sid Hatfield. In the aftermath, 10 men lay dead or dying along the tracks and railroad-fronting sidewalks.
Advancing technology and the demise of railroad passenger service led to the American country station’s downfall. Matewan was no exception, and, after service on The Cavalier was curtailed west of Bluefield in 1960, the downgraded Powhatan Arrow-once the pride of Norfolk & Western-made its last stop in 1969. It appears that the original station was torn down a year earlier and a lowly shelter shed erected in its place, as no agent was listed after 1967 and it was the practice to immediately do away with unnecessary buildings for tax purposes.
The 24 x 110 foot reconstruction is an inch-for-inch representation of the steam-era Matewan station located in Matewan, West Virginia.
While west of and on the opposite side of the tracks from the original location, it was constructed from standard Norfolk & Western plans and great pains have been taken after much research to present as much of a time-trapped representation as possible.
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