According to information from Wilma Steele, "This is the old bridge between Matewan, West Virginia and Buskirk/McCarr, Kentucky. Under this bridge, runs the Tug River. It was on the river bank under where this bridge was standing that the Mcoy boys were killed during the Hatfield - McCoy feud."

This gives us a true picture of just how close West Virginia is to the state of Kentucky. The Steele families and Hatfield families (and others) in the area seemed to move frequently back and forth between the two states in the 1800s, when in fact, they just crossed the river!

It was no different in the days when Coal was "King" in this area. The families were linked not only by blood, they were linked by the need to eak out a living, and the demand for coal from the rest of the country. The following pages will show where the coal was mined and how it was sent by rail to the rest of the country. In today's society, the descendants of the early pioneers and the coal miners cannot begin to imagine what life was like in those early days and just how hard life was for most who grew up in the "Billion Dollar Coal Fields" where coal (actually the mine owners) were "King(s)."

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