Jordan Nelson, a blacksmith, dug coal from the bank to fuel his forge and made the first commercial use of it by selling it for 1 cent a bushel in the 1870s. In 1873, I. A. Welch surveyed the Pocahontas Coalfield for J. Hotchkiss, who induced F. J. Kimball, later president of N&W Railroad, to visit the site in May 1881. The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company then bought the land, opened Pocahontas Mine, and shipped coal over N&W’s New River Line, which was built to open the coalfield.