Raleigh County's coal industry began in 1891 when the county's first mine opened at Royal on the New River. The Beckley Exhibition Mine, once an actual operating mine, and dozens of other mines throughout Raleigh County produced 792,055,155 tons of bituminous coal during the first century of the county's coal industry, from 1891 to 1991. Annual employment at the county's mines reached as high as 14,226.