At Quinnimont, in the New River Gorge, Joseph Beury, a 30-year-old miner from Pennsylvania, opened the first coal mine along the C&O. Twenty more mines began operation within a year.

One geologist claimed there was enough coal within five miles of the C&O to supply western markets for a thousand years. Railroad workers stayed on to work in the mines. Stores, sawmills, whole towns sprang up in the wilderness.