After looking at the information about Lookout from the History of Fayette County, West Virginia by Carden and Peters (1926), I felt it might be enlightening to many people to see what kind of jobs there were in a large-scale mining operation. Even though the Carden-Peters book was published in 1926, the 1950 census confirms that these activities were still in full swing in what appears to have been a thriving tight-knit coal-mining community. I’m assuming the discussion of Lookout in 1926 is the same as in this 1950 census for Nuttall. Are we talking about the same location?
This map is from Pinterest and is supposedly from 1911. I see “Mine No. 1” and “Mine No. 2” in the same area as Boone, Winona, Lookout, Edmond, and Nuttall. Apparently, the Kay Moor mine was on the opposite side of the river.
Pages from that census (as shown at Ancestry.com) list people with a variety of coal-mining-related jobs. If you are familiar with the coal business, you might help us by describing what these jobs entailed:
packer
drill operator
motorman (I assume this is a car driver as opposed to a truck driver. Is it?)
section foreman/section head
laborer
trucker/truck driver
salesman
conveyor man
coal loader
slate man
boom boy/boom man
gang worker
bookkeeper (obvious)
mechanic/auto mechanic
brakeman
timber cutter (Is that different from a sawmill worker?)
mine foreman
coal mine operator
day man
mill hand/sawmill worker
welder
farm owner (obvious)
section boss
electrician (obvious)
machine operator
inspector
store owner (obvious)
barber (obvious)
track layer
carpenter (obvious)
weigh boss/weigh man
store clerk (obvious)
post mistress (obvious)
tipple boss/tipple man
hauler/supplies (obvious)
car repairer (obvious)
cook (obvious)
paper delivery (obvious)
teacher (obvious)
innkeeper (obvious—they had a hotel on site)
I really have very little detailed understanding of how coal mines operated and would like to visit the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. If you are familiar with any of these topics, please share what you know either below in the comments or on the Facebook page.