Howard Elson North at Mine Shaft

This is my grandfather, and the man behind the camera for all the pictures seen here. It was rare to have a camera in those days, and grandpa fancied himself quite the photographer. He developed his own film as well. He made his own dark room, sometimes in a coal shed.

I feel very fortunate to get to see his World as HE saw it.

Click here to request information on the Glen Rogers Reunion, for previous residents & laborers of Glen Rogers. Happening the summer of 2005

Click here to see other coal camp photos (offsite)

Glen Rogers, West Virginia

Dad said they had to cross this creek to get between home & the mine.

A 'shanty' is a coal miner's house. These shanty's were common. The pictures give you a good feel for the conditions the miner's lived in. Shanty's often were grouped together, and in "Brickyard Holler (Hollow)", seen below, there were about 6 or 7 shanties. The road dead-ended here.

The shanty is covered with something like tar-paper, to keep the elements out. My Father is the boy in the middle.

About 100 yards from the shanty was an air vent for the mine shaft, 710 feet deep. My dad rode down to the bottom of the shaft in the 'muck bucket' once. His father, the photographer, was the hoist operator for the shaft and 'muck bucket'.

Four generations of the Bilbrey family lived in the hills of the same area. there were four daughters, of which my dad only remembers Betty Bilbrey. Their parents did not live there (possibly deceased). Also living there was the girls' grandmother, great-grandfather & great-grandmother.

The grandmother had a stroke and went into a coma. My father remembers that the doctor would come up there every day. He would run his car key along a blue vein in grandmother Bilbrey's skin, pressing the blood out. If the vein refilled, then she was still alive.

The Powhatten Arrow ran through McDowell County, near where grandpa worked.

I don't know the exact location of this photo. Could be Superior, or Glen Rogers or maybe even Welch

Anybody know where this is at?

Lake Superior Coal Company 1940's

Ken Scarberry's Lake Superior Map, 1940's & 1950's

Grandpa didn't take this photo. It's included here because these men are in other photographs that he did take. Some of those are posted here. These men lived and worked with grandpa. He clipped this article and it was found in the box with his photographs.

Son of Howard E. North, photographer

Superior, West Virginia

My Dad thinks that A. K. Henderson's Father as being a mine supervisor of some sort. The Henderson's lived either in the next house over from the apartment my dad lived in, or one more house over.

age 15 months

Pinacle Rock is near Bluefield, West Virginia

The Cauttle family lived right next to my dad's family in the south end of Superior (upstream), just beyond the upstream end of the twin tunnels.

The French family lived in the same apartment building as my Dad's 1st place in Superior. My Dad's family later moved upstream near the tunnels.

Jimmy French

My Dad thinks the Sorah Family lived in the same apartment building in Superior, as he did when his family 1st moved there. He isn't positive though. The apartment seen in the background is that apartment though.

Wanda Lee Sorah,

From Ken Scarberry & Teeny Sorah Beeman: Wanda in the photo is the daughter of Claude Sorah, brother to Teeny who did live in the apartments on Good Husband Row. Caude later became, I believe, Inside Boss and lived on the Hylton Hill and his house was the last house torn down.

at the apartments

Superior, West Virginia

Late 1940's