The Hatfield McCoy Trail System was sanctioned by the West Virginia Legislature to generate economic development by utilizing tourism in nine of the southern West Virginia counties. The Trail System covers hundreds of miles of off-road trails. The trail systems are open 365 days a year to ATVs, dirt bikes, and utility vehicles (UTVs). Many of…
The Matewan Depot
During the early 1900s, the railroad depot became the center of the community. This was very true in Mingo County, WV. The Matewan Depot is one of the most historically important stations along the 673-mile Norfolk and Western main line. The facility served both passenger and freight depot for a population of nearly 7,000. After…
The Hatfield McCoy Feud
The Hatfield-McCoy feud began in the mountainous region of the Tug River valley. William Anderson Hatfield was the well recognized leader of the Hatfields and went by the nickname of “Devil Anse”. The leader of the McCoys was Randle McCoy. The first event linking the Hatfields and McCoys was at the end of the Civil…
The Matewan Massacre
During the early spring of 1920, unorganized coal miners in Mingo County, West Virginia began looking to join the UMWA. On May 19, 1920, twelve men were killed at Matewan, West Virginia in a gun fight in which would later be known as the “Matewan Massacre”. The local police and the people of Matewan faced a group…
Matewan Flood Wall
For decades the town of Matewan was repeatedly drowned by floods from the nearby river the Tug River; it had an unwelcome reputation as the most frequently flooded town in America. The flooding peaked in 1977 and 1984,. That is when the Army Corps of Engineers were brought in to build a giant flood wall. The…
Sam Church
A coal miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1979 to 1982.
John Hendricks
The founder and former chairman of Discovery Communications, a broadcasting and film production company which owns the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet networks, among other ventures.
Sid Hatfield
Police Chief of Matewan, West Virginia during the Battle of Matewan, a shootout that followed a series of evictions carried out by detectives from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency
Devil Anse Hatfield
The patriarch of the Hatfield clan during the infamous Hatfield–McCoy feud which has since formed a part of American folklore.
About Us
The town was named after Matteawan (now called Beacon), a town in Dutchess County, Upstate New York. Matteawan was the home town of Erskine Hazard, a civil engineer from the Norfolk and Western Railway who laid out the town in 1890 and drew up the first map of the new community. Local residents, however, changed…