Where It All Started

The depot was the heart of Thurmond and the New River Gorge in the early 1900s, when the railroad ruled transportation and this station was where arriving people began their business and social activities. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway built the depot in 1904 to replace the original 1891 structure destroyed by fire. Passenger and freight trains created constant activity, and at its peak the station was one of the highest revenue-producing depots on the Chesapeake and Ohio line, taking in nearly $5 million in receipts in 1910 and handling nearly 4.3 million tons of freight. In 1984, the Chesapeake and Ohio, by then CSX Transportation, closed the depot, the same year the Thurmond Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service restored the depot and opened it as a summer visitor center in 1995, and today the town's quiet contrasts with the industrial bustle that once filled the area.

West Virginia · United States