Thousands of people once lived along Paint Creek, where during coal’s heyday towns stood one after another up the stream in places including Standard, Greencastle, Tomsburg, Pax, and Kingston. Images from the first half of the 20th century recall the Willis Branch Coal Company, the Paint Creek Coal Mining Co. in Standard, miners and families such as the Kidd family of Standard in Kanawha County, George Washington Maynor of the Seventh West Virginia Cavalry, the swinging bridge at Greencastle, the Paint Creek "Ole Swimming Hole," the Kingston Choir, Tomsburg in 1905, Pax, and Kingston in the 1920’s. Only a few towns remain, and much of the area has returned to wilderness.