A Park for the Coal Miner

Hometown Park existed by at least the 1920s and grew from land set aside after Hatfield and Mitchell Coal and Mining Company bought the nearby Apha Mine on Little Guano Creek in 1918. The company provided a small tract for recreation and leisure for mine workers, and because the mining superintendent was William C. Mitchell, many people called it Mitchell’s Grove, or simply the Grove. The Grove outlived the mining industry in Putnam County and, after World War II, stood as the only established roadside recreational site for miles around, serving picnics and family gatherings for residents of Putnam County and nearby communities as far away as Mason and Kanawha counties. Local resident Christopher Columbus Priddy, who had lost an arm in a coal mining accident, worked as the park’s caretaker in the 1940s, and a decade later Hometown resident Herbert H. Meeks, also a disabled coal miner, served in the same role. The park offered visitor amenities not found elsewhere in the region, including a water fountain that made the Grove especially appealing because other regional parks did not have running water.

Hometown, West Virginia · United States