Inside the least populated town in West Virginia — and the railroad that started it all

It’s still an official town

Thurmond, West Virginia, sits on a thin strip of land along the New River, right inside New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. Fewer than 10 people live here, making it the least populous municipality in the state.

The National Park Service owns about 80 percent of the town, and the whole place sits on the National Register of Historic Places as a designated historic district.

You can walk the same railroad tracks that once made this one of the busiest stops in West Virginia, and the story of how it got this quiet starts with a land deal in 1873.

A surveyor’s payment turned into a railroad empire

Captain W.D. Thurmond took 73 acres along the newly finished Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1873, payment for a surveying job. Coal and timber industries pushed through the gorge, and the town grew fast.

It was incorporated in 1903 and named after the captain. For almost 50 years, the only way in or out was by rail.

A single-lane bridge over the New River didn’t go up until 1921.

More freight than Cincinnati and Richmond combined

By 1910, Thurmond sat at the center of the C&O mainline.

The depot handled as many as 75,000 passengers a year, and the freight operation moved more tonnage than Cincinnati and Richmond combined.

Two hotels, two banks, restaurants, a jewelry store, a movie theater and clothing shops lined the tracks. Coal barons stacked their money in Thurmond’s banks, and those banks ranked among the richest in the state.

The hotel with a 14-year poker game

Captain Thurmond banned alcohol on his land, so the McKell family built the Dunglen Hotel just outside the town limits. The four-story, 100-room hotel opened in 1901, and gambling and drinking ran around the clock.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not credited the Dunglen with the longest continuous poker game on record, stretching more than 14 years.

The hotel also hosted the largest coal mine deal ever made in the region, worth more than one million dollars. Arsonists burned it to the ground on July 22, 1930.

Fires, diesel engines and empty streets

The Great Depression shut down the National Bank of Thurmond in 1931. The New River Bank packed up and moved to Oak Hill by 1935.

Two major fires, one in 1914 and another in 1963, wiped out key businesses including the Lafayette Hotel. Cars and good roads pulled passengers off the trains.

When the C&O Railway swapped steam locomotives for diesel in the 1950s, the rail yard jobs that kept Thurmond alive disappeared with them.

Step inside the restored 1904 depot

The two-story depot went up in 1904 after fire destroyed the original the year before.

The National Park Service restored it as a visitor center in 1995, and you can walk through offices that look the way they did in the early 1900s.

The yardmaster’s office still has its period furniture and equipment.

The center opens daily from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, and on weekends in September and October. Grab a walking tour map and get your National Park Service stamp before you head out.

Walk the main street right along the tracks

The self-guided walking tour runs along the main street, which sits right beside the railroad tracks with no road separating them.

You’ll pass the National Bank of Thurmond, built in 1917, which once held a jewelry store, a clothing store and Western Union Telegraph Company offices under one roof.

A 1922 coaling tower still stands where crews loaded up to 500 tons of coal into steam locomotives. CSX freight trains still rumble through on active tracks, so keep your head up.

Ride the Amtrak line into a near-ghost town

Amtrak’s Cardinal line still stops at the Thurmond depot three times a week in each direction, running between Chicago and Washington, D.C. It ranks as one of the least used stations on the entire Amtrak network.

There’s no waiting room, no ticket booth and no staff. You step off the train and onto the same platform that once handled 15 passenger trains a day.

If you’re looking for one of the more memorable ways to arrive anywhere in Appalachia, this is it.

Hike old railroad grades along the river

The Rend Trail follows a former railroad corridor along the New River and Dunloup Creek, crossing old train trestles with views back toward Thurmond.

The Stone Cliff Trail runs 2.7 miles along the riverbank and takes you into a section of old-growth forest.

If you want the wide view, the Concho Overlook looks down over the town and the river as it bends through the gorge. Many of these trails follow old railroad grades, so they stay flat and easy on your legs.

Raft right through town on the New River

The Upper New River section runs straight past Thurmond, with Class I to III rapids gentle enough for families with kids as young as six.

Below town, the river narrows into the Lower New, where Class III to IV rapids draw experienced paddlers. That run ends beneath the New River Gorge Bridge, 876 feet above you.

Rafting season goes from April through October, and you’ll likely spot bald eagles, river otters or deer along the banks.

An 800-step staircase and a 1,700-foot bridge

Nuttallburg, a short drive from Thurmond, preserves one of the most intact coal mining complexes from the era, including a massive conveyor system built under Henry Ford’s ownership in the 1920s.

The Kaymoor mine site sends you down more than 800 steps to the old coal processing area.

About 18 miles north, the New River Gorge Bridge stretches 1,700 feet as the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the country.

Every third Saturday in October, Bridge Day shuts the bridge to traffic for BASE jumping and a festival that pulls in tens of thousands.

Seven winding miles and almost no cell signal

Thurmond is still an incorporated town with a mayor and a city council. Former residents and their families come back every year for an annual reunion.

The National Park Service started a stabilization program in 2003 to keep the remaining buildings standing. If you plan to visit, download your maps and information ahead of time because cell service barely reaches here.

The seven-mile drive down WV Route 25 is narrow and winding, and it’s not a road you want to take in an RV or with a trailer.

Explore Thurmond in West Virginia’s New River Gorge

You can visit Thurmond inside New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in Fayette County, West Virginia. Take U.S. Route 19 to the Glen Jean exit north of Beckley and follow the signs seven miles down WV Route 25.

Amtrak’s Cardinal line also serves the depot three times a week if you’d rather arrive by rail. There’s no entrance fee to walk the town or visit the depot.

The visitor center keeps seasonal hours, so check the official website before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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