Nuttallburg

Abandoned coal town with a 1,385-foot conveyor still standing in the woods.

Reached by a winding gravel road off Route 16 south of Fayetteville, Nuttallburg is the most complete of the gorge's coal-town ruins. The National Park Service has stabilised — but not restored — the surviving structures: the massive concrete tipple at the river, the conveyor running 1,385 feet up the slope, the church foundations, the company store, and a few miners' chimneys still standing in the woods.

A short interpretive trail loops through the main industrial area. Combine with the Lower Wye Loop or the Headhouse Trail uphill to see more. Quieter than Kaymoor and more haunting.

things to do sight hiking
A story
Nuttallburg was once owned by Henry Ford, who bought it in 1922 to control the coal supplying his Detroit auto plants. He installed the longest conveyor-and-headhouse complex of its kind in the world to load river barges below. Ford sold out in 1928 and the town slowly emptied; the conveyor still climbs through the forest, an industrial cathedral overgrown with rhododendron.