Helen was established around 1919 as the railroad pushed west through southern West Virginia and coal mining opened new opportunities, growth, and new towns. Named after the daughter of G.W. Stevens, president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, Helen first saw mining opened by the East Gulf Coal Company. In the last six months of 1919, the East Gulf numbers 1, 3, and 4 mines produced 62,837 tons of coal, rising to 84,543 tons in the first six months of 1920. Later, the Koppers Coal Company mined the area's rich coal deposits and in time operated as the Eastern Gas and Fuel Company and then the Eastern Associated Coal Corporation. Helen was typical of regional coal towns, with a company store, restaurant, movie theater, school, church, and a boarding house for single miners. It also had a diverse population, with black and white, Italian, Polish, and other immigrants working side by side in the mines. Just east of this location, a baseball field hosted spirited weekly games against teams from other mining towns across the region. At the height of the coal boom, thousands of miners worked in and around Helen, and although the mines are now closed, the memory of those who lived there and mined the coal remains strong.