This abandoned WV town’s whitewashed cottages hide a dark segregation history

West Virginia’s Segregated Lumber Boomtown and Its Demise

In 1900, West Virginia Pulp and Paper built Cass from scratch, with 52 neat white houses in three strict classes.

The town soon filled with workers who couldn’t speak English – men from Italy, Germany, and Austria who wore number tags since bosses couldn’t say their names.

Across the river, “East Cass” grew wild with brawls and danger, while Black families got stuck with poor housing there instead of the tidy white town.

By 1920, Cass had 2,000 folks, but as trees got cut, jobs dried up. After sixty years of company rule, the mill shut down in 1960.

Today, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park tells this complex story of boom, bias, and bust.

West Virginia Pulp & Paper Built Cass From Scratch in 1900

The West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company started the lumber town of Cass in 1900 along the Greenbrier River where Leatherbark Creek joins it. They named the town after Joseph Kerr Cass, the company’s vice president.

The company quickly built a sawmill and homes for workers. Construction crews began laying railroad tracks in 1901 up the steep Back Allegheny Mountain.

General manager Emory P. Shaffer arrived in March 1900 to get everything running, bringing his tough management style that shaped the town for decades.

Company Housing Separated Workers By Job Rank

Fifty-two white-fenced houses lined up in neat rows on a hill south of the store, with workers sorted into three housing classes. Day laborers got class three houses, basic two-story buildings just 30 feet by 20 feet.

Office staff lived in better class two houses, while managers enjoyed the roomiest class one homes. The town grew to include a hospital, clubhouse, churches, school, and company store.

Shaffer earned his nickname “the Boss” by keeping tight control over everything in the company-owned parts of town.

Immigrant Workers Built Tracks Up West Virginia’s Steepest Mountains

Track laying started in 1901 with crews of immigrant workers tackling the steep slopes of Back Allegheny Mountain. The 1900 census shows many Europeans came to the area just to build railroads through this rough terrain.

Workers later extended the tracks all the way to Bald Knob, the third-highest peak in West Virginia. The company cut red spruce, yellow birch, and maple from forests along the Shavers Fork of Cheat River.

They even built a new town called Spruce with its own pulp mill in 1905.

Language Barriers Led To Workers Being Called By Numbers

Timber companies brought in more foreign workers through agents called Padrones who recruited straight from Ellis Island.

By 1910, foreign-born residents made up five percent of Pocahontas County’s population, with workers from Italy, Germany, Austria and other European countries.

Since these men couldn’t speak English and bosses couldn’t understand them, the company gave workers numbered tags to wear.

At its busiest, the company hired 3,000 workers, mostly immigrants who spoke little or no English.

Across The River, “East Cass” Became The Wild Side Of Town

The area across the river from the tidy company town got a bad reputation like other rough towns such as Keystone and Davis.

People called it Brooklyn until about 1906, when a fire burned almost everything except a few houses, after which folks called it East Cass.

The company only kept a quarantine “pest house” there and housing for Black families. East Cass drew wood hicks, hustlers, con artists, and troublemakers, with constant drinking, fighting, and danger.

The Company Controlled Every Aspect Of Workers’ Lives

Shaffer began working directly for West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company in 1910 after it took over the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Co. Cass thrived between 1909 and 1920, during the peak years of pulpwood production.

The company provided everything residents needed, including the store, housing, school, and church. During its run, the company processed about 1.25 billion board feet of lumber.

Even the Wright brothers bought wood from the Cass mill for their airplanes, using spruce that combined light weight with strength.

The Town Reached 2,000 Residents During Its Golden Years

Cass grew fast and by 1920 had more than 2,000 people living there. Small railroad towns popped up all along the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway line.

The railroad company built tracks to a valley near Spruce, creating another small town with about 30 company houses, a big company store, school, and pulp mill.

The magazine Manufacturers Record called Spruce “a camp chopped out of the forest on Cheat Mountain” with 500-600 residents.

Forests Started Running Out By The 1920s

The original forests were mostly cut down by 1920, and with no other jobs in town, Cass began to shrink.

Loggers had cleared all the red spruce in the Bald Knob area, forcing the company to tear up those tracks in the early 1910s.

Local workers proved unreliable, only working during fall and winter before returning to their farms in spring and summer.

The company built and rebuilt various tracks through the 1920s-1940s as they looked for new timber.

New Owners Took Over As World War II Began

West Virginia Pulp & Paper sold the entire Cass operation to Mower Lumber Company in June 1942.

The sawmill changed hands in 1943, going to the Mower Lumber Company from Charleston, which focused on cutting second-growth timber. Mower Lumber kept the railroad running until July 1, 1960.

This ownership change marked the end of the original company town system and the tight community control that had shaped life in Cass.

The Mill Closed Its Doors For Good in 1960

The mill and railroad shut down in July 1960 as the timber industry in the region fell apart. Mower Lumber Company could no longer make money as the available timber ran out.

Like most sawmill towns across West Virginia, Cass seemed headed for abandonment. After closing, the rail line, land, and all equipment were sold to a holding company called Don Mower Lumber Company.

This ended six decades of company control and the multi-ethnic community life in Cass.

The State Saved Cass From Becoming A Ghost Town

West Virginia brought Cass into the state parks system in 1961, preserving it for future generations. The state purchased 11 miles of the logging railroad in 1962 and created the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park.

The company town itself became part of the parks system in 1977, ensuring the unique history would be protected. The Cass Historic District earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Today, visitors can see 20 fully restored company houses, with others stabilized and waiting for future rehabilitation work.

Visiting Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, West Virginia

You can explore Cass’s multi-ethnic company town history at 12363 Cass Road. Train tickets start at $130+ for adults through mountainrailwv.com, and free walking tours run multiple times daily during train season.

The Cass Historical Museum in the Company Store Building opens 9 AM-5:30 PM. Stay overnight in original company houses that fit 4-14 guests.

Signage throughout town acknowledges the segregation and poor housing conditions African American families faced in East Cass.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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