coal Camp Kids Gatliff Coal Camp History

HISTORY

This is the #3 Tipple at lower Gatliff, on the old commissary road. This was where our dad worked. Most of the men at Gatliff worked at this mine.

This is the Gatliff Coal Camp.
This is a picture of our house at Gatliff. The one in the upper row on the left side. There is a big sage field above our house. We all used to slide down the sage field on a card board box. We also picked berries on the hill above our house. We had a lot of fun. The large building in the fore front is the Depot.

This is the #2 Tipple at Gatliff. There was a power house near this tipple. Long after this tipple was out of use, many of the camp kids would gather at the power house pond and swim. Luckily, we didn't get sick from the water. I'm, sure it was unsafe. However, there was a county nurse that came to our school and gave Diphtheria and Typhoid shots. I guess that's what saved us.

Coal Camp Kids

Everyone was affected by the coal strike. Our family went to our mom's parents until the strike was over, because there was no food left. Daddy stayed at Gatliff until the strike was over. I used to worry if he had food to eat. The commodity program became available and we went back home.

When there was no work going on at the mine, we didn't have to pay rent or electricity. Our coal camp was a good one compared to stories I have heard about other mining camps.

We were hunters and gatherers. Daddy hunted and dug ginseng and yellow root. It was always drying at our house. When he sold it we all got new shoes for school. We picked berries and wild greens. daddy caught fish and hunted rabbit and squirrel. We gathered hickory nuts and walnuts. We always had a garden. Mommie canned and dried everything that we could eat. She had twelve extra hands to help her with the work, There was no indoor plumbing and we had to pump water and carry it to the house. But we didn't miss what we never had.

I rarely saw silver coins or paper dollars. We used script to buy what we needed from the Gatliff Commissary. When we needed something from the store, we drew script and the amount was taken off daddy's pay. Our mommie could sure stretch a dollar.

Christmas was a special time. We would each get a present, but the highlight was the treat bag we got from the church. It was full of candy , nuts, apples and oranges. We would trade it to each other and eat on it for what seemed like a week.

Everyone knew everyone at Gatliff, and most of their business, but we all seemed to get along. Gatliff used to be a booming camp, but that was a long before our time. However, we had two restaurants, three churches, a school, a doctor, and for a short time I remember a movie theater.

I was ten years old when I first saw a television. It didn't seem real that there was another world outside of Gatliff. I had to quit school in my first year of high school, because there was no money for books. The older kids had already left home to find work and one brother went to the army. I went to Ohio and got a job. That was the end of Gatliff as I had known it. But, many years later I got my education. I'll never forget Gatliff because that was home.