The railroad's importance to Mullens and the surrounding communities began in 1906 when the Deepwater Railway Company expanded into the area. After negotiations, early settler Andrew Jackson Mullins agreed to sell right-of-way through his property if a railroad station was built near his store and the Deepwater company engineer laid out a plot for the town. The railroad reached Mullens in November of that year, setting the stage for the growth of the town and the entire Upper Guyandotte River area. Mullens became the center of commerce for dozens of nearby coal towns, including Itmann, Otsego, Caloric, Mead Poca, and Tralee, as well as for the timber industry, and Ritter Lumber in Maben just north of here had operations in surrounding states. By 1960, the population had grown from the original family of 12 to 3,544. In 1907, the Deepwater merged with the Tidewater Railway to form the Virginian Railroad, which had a large presence in Mullens. With the railroad in place, the stage was set for the coal boom, and the area's massive coal deposits were mined and delivered to the coast of Virginia for distribution throughout the world.