The Pocahontas coalfield stretches across western Mercer County through McDowell and southern Wyoming counties and is one of the most productive coal-bearing areas in the world, with six seams of high-quality coal close to the surface. Its semi-bituminous coal had a high carbon content, burned well, and produced little smoke and ash, leading promoters to call it “smokeless,” and it fueled the nation’s industrialization. Although it was one of the last Appalachian coalfields to be developed, explorers and settlers in the 18th century observed coal outcrops there, and these discoveries were noted as early as 1787 in Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. Virginia’s first geologic survey examined the region in the 1830s, but rugged terrain and lack of transportation hindered development, while the area then known as the Flat Top Mountains remained sparsely settled by Scots-Irish pioneers. Major Jed Hotchkiss, known as a map-maker for General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson during the Civil War, hoped Virginia iron and limestone could be combined with West Virginia coal to create a steel industry in Virginia, and in 1873 he sent Capt. Isaiah Welch to survey the coal potential. With help from local residents such as Jordon Nelson, Welch’s successful report drew strong interest from Philadelphia capitalists. Nelson, a blacksmith living near Pocahontas, Virginia, had discovered a coal seam around the time of the Civil War, dug coal for his own use, and operated the area’s first retail coal business, delivering one-half bushel sacks on horseback. The seam, locally called the Nelson seam, was thirteen feet thick and of superior quality before later being renamed the Pocahontas #3 seam. At Hotchkiss’ urging, investors formed a railroad company that in 1881 became the Norfolk & Western Railway, linking the coalfields to the east coast. Because West Virginia law before 1903 barred railroad companies from owning large tracts of land, the investors created the Southwest Virginia Development Company to buy about 200,000 acres in the Flat Top area; this company later became the Flat Top Land Association, combining railroad and landholding interests and gaining great power in directing and profiting from the coalfield’s development. As the nation industrialized, surveyors, engineers, speculators, and capitalists came to the region seeking coal, and because developing a coalfield required geological knowledge and the infrastructure of labor, housing, and transportation in an underpopulated area, coal operators built towns near the mines, reshaping the region’s geography.