KEMPTON

NAME: Kempton COUNTY: Garrett ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Deep snow in winter. Nice in summer BEST TIME TO VISIT: Beuatiful folage in fall

COMMENTS: Approximately 4-6 families still live in the town of what used to be 500 plus houses and families. 8 miles from route 50 and 3 miles from fairfax stone WVa. REMAINS: Company store some foundations, a cemetary and the old water tower as of 10-12 years ago

With a school, church, store, doctor and theater. The only definite remaining original building is the old company store at the end of town. One or two of the houses that are there may be semi original just updated a lot. The town was deserted when the coal mine hit the water table and flooded. The town was a company town owned and operated by the mining company. They owned everything including the money, workers were paid with company "chit's" (their own money) only good at the company store. After the mine flooded the company abandon the town and the entire area leaving behind millions of tons slate which leaked into the potomac river for the next several decades. The only mining building left was the coal and the open air shaft which lead to the mine itself. The train tracks were removed and it was almost as if nothing had ever been there. The state of Md. finally came into the area declared it a super fund site and cleaned the slate dumps by burying them under lime stone and then seeding them with grass. It was a thriving community for several decades and within a couple of years a blackened waist land covered in coal dust and the few families that couldn't afford to leave. Submitted by: Dan Bennett

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