Rick Johnson’s introduction to the world of coal began as a teenager more than 40 years ago in rural western Virginia. For a decade and a half, he worked for extraction and chemical production companies across Appalachia.
“I was fed on coal,” he said recently.
But his work kept him away from home for long periods. And by the mid-1990s he and his wife, Heather, saw another major resource staring them in the face: the region’s natural beauty. As the once-profitable local mining and extraction industry suffered a downturn, leading company after company to board up, the Johnsons decided to buy a rafting business in Oak Hill, West Virginia.
“We built a campground, put in some showers, ran running water,” he says. “It was a way to stay in West Virginia – and make a living.”
Today, Johnson employs 110 people at River Expeditions, a company that takes people on guided rafting trips down the whitewater rapids of the Gauley and New rivers. Their sprawling resort also has zip-lining, horse riding and cabins, serving as an important source of jobs for locals in a region grappling with high unemployment.
“It’s hard for people to stay [in West Virginia] and make a living. There’s just not that much to offer,” he says. “I wanted to see this area grow to where kids didn’t have to leave here to get a job.”
His experience reflects that of many in recent years in southern West Virginia, a state of about 1.8 million people. As the number of jobs in the state’s energy sector from about 30,000 in the 1990s to roughly 12,000 now, locals who once worked in mining or its ancillary industries are now employed by a growing number of tourism businesses in this stunning corner of Appalachia.
In 2021, 1.7 million visitors to the New River national park spent about $82m in local communities. The number of jobs in the region rose to 1,090 in 2021 compared to an annual average of 705 over the previous nine years, according to the National Parks Service.
Among those to adjust to the change is Aaron Beam. Like many West Virginians, coal runs in the 30-year-old Beam’s blood. “My uncle and grandfather worked in coal,” he says. “I spent a summer working in a mine myself.”
The main goal for Beam, a Summersville resident, was to find a job that kept him close to his family. That prompted him to get degrees in mining, engineering and geology when coming out of high school 12 years ago.
But after several years working on permitting and design projects in the coal industry, he said he felt trapped.
“I kept thinking to myself: If this job goes away, what am I going to do?” he said. “The [coal] industry goes in and out of production and people get laid off all the time.”
The uncertainty prompted him to shift gears. Today, Beam works as an accountant at Adventures on the Gorge, an outdoor adventure resort situated a short distance from the picturesque New River Gorge bridge. His office is situated about 100ft from the New River Gorge, which was redesignated a national park and preserve in 2020.
“How can you beat that, right?” he said, nodding towards the vast, forested canyon spanning out into the distance. “My job is confined to my office, but it’s really nice to step outside and go for a walk and see the bridge. It’s just beautiful.”
These changes mark a stark departure from the region’s history.
At its most prosperous a century ago, Fayette county and surrounding areas were home to tens of thousands of acres of iron and coalmines, employing thousands of people, many who were immigrant miners from Europe, including Britain.
In recent decades, mining activity in West Virginia declined significantly as energy providers moved to cleaner resources. McDowell county, once a mining powerhouse south of Fayette, had a population in the 1950s of about 100,000 people. Now, it’s home to fewer than 20,000. The state as a whole is believed to have experienced a net loss of 6,000 direct mining jobs since 2010, a trend which seems set to continue for years.
Still, the shift from extraction to tourism hasn’t been linear. Work in the outdoor industry is seasonal, meaning it’s not always a reliable source of employment for locals hired directly or indirectly for the industry.
“Tourism and recreation have been growing in southern West Virginia, but they don’t always pay as much as the mines,” Christy Laxton of the Wyoming county Economic Development Authority said. “They don’t employ as many people either.
“There’s (also) a family history. Coal mining is generational. It’s not just a job … it’s a family tradition, a family heritage.”
Nor is that link with mining completely broken today: last June, an Indian company that makes mining equipment announced it would move its headquarters to Fayette, promising to bring with it dozens of jobs. Local media hailed the move as “momentous”, despite scientists’ knowledge that the coal mining industry has contributed to climate change.
Meanwhile, the number of people hitting local rivers for whitewater activities is way down from decades past. Twenty years ago, about 250,000 people rafted the New and Gauley rivers a year – today, roughly 100,000 do so, though those numbers have rebounded since the Covid pandemic.
“People don’t know we’ve got two of the top 10 [rafting] rivers in the world in West Virginia,” Johnson said.
But the future looks bright.
For six weekends every fall, authorities draw down Summersville Lake in Nicholas county, creating heart-pumping whitewater conditions on the Gauley river that attract more than 40,000 thrill-seekers globally. With the new national park status attracting more eyes to the region, businesses such as Johnson’s are set to benefit.
“Tourism is the only thing we’ve ever had in central Appalachia that the resource renews itself every day and the money stays here,” Johnson said. “That’s what’s so beautiful about it.”
