PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Raleigh County, established January 23, 1850, was named by its founder Alfred Beckley (a West Point graduate) for Sir Walter Raleigh, while the county seat of Beckley was named for his father, John James Beckley, the first Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and first Librarian of Congress; the region’s coal wealth was noted as early as 1742, when German explorer John Peter Salling led an expedition down the New and Kanawha Rivers and named Coal River after observing rich coal seams (Coal River’s headwaters lie in Raleigh County); Beckley’s modern growth dates to 1890 with the start of commercial smokeless coal shipments, accelerating sharply after the rich Winding Gulf coalfield opened in 1907; the city was occupied by both Union and Confederate troops during the Civil War; today Beckley is genuinely home to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine at New River Park, where visitors board a “man car” for a 35-minute, retired-miner-guided tour through an actual former operating coal mine (constant 58°F year-round), drawing roughly 48,000 visitors annually (seasonal, April 1–Nov 1) alongside a restored coal camp, the Rahall Company Store, and a recreated pioneer village; also on-site is the Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia, featuring the Mountain Homestead, a recreated Appalachian frontier settlement; Tamarack Marketplace, opened 1996 directly off Exit 45 of the WV Turnpike/I-77, is the state’s flagship “West Virginia Made” arts, crafts, food, and dinner-theater center, showcasing artisans and craftspeople from across the state and remaining one of WV’s most-visited cultural attractions; other regional draws include Little Beaver State Park, Lake Stephens, Glade Springs Resort, Winterplace ski resort, the Grandview section of New River Gorge National Park & Preserve (with its seasonal outdoor Theatre West Virginia productions), and Sandstone Falls, the LARGEST waterfall on the New River; Burning Rock ATV Park offers a 105-mile trail system near Tams with lodging cabins and a zip-line
Notes: The Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine’s status as a genuine, still-operating former coal mine (not a replica) toured by actual retired miners, and Tamarack’s role as the state’s flagship arts/crafts showcase, are both verifiable, well-documented, and central to the region’s identity.