Hillbillies In a Ghost Town - Exploring Thurmond West Virginia

[@jeffellis9462]

Please do NOT STOP laughing during your videos we love it and it get us gigling too infact the forst video of your we watched wat the pink gothic house and we heard you giggle we loved it

[@ritakeller5525]

Very nice drone footage! Thank you.

[@teapotts8407]

Did you hear that? When you were stepping and checking the boards on the first house. You stepped on it and made a knocking noise. I heard a woman say, “Come in.” It was plain as could be.

[@ruthshelton-tp9ie]

TIME STAMP : 20:00 Right after the foot taping you hear; "Come in!" Kool catch ! I'm used to Ghost 'stuff' She sounded nice..😊

[@truracer20]

It was Heather...

[@ruthshelton-tp9ie]

​@@2gpowell Time stamp -- 20:20 Foot tap then you hear; "Come in!" 😊

[@ruthshelton-tp9ie]

Time stamp; 20:20 Foot tap then ; " Come in!"

[@randomvintagefilm273]

😅😅😅😅😅 I've got some ocean front property in Colorado for you to buy honey.

[@MissouriPenny]

Enjoyed replay thanks for sharing your channel with me 😊😊😊

[@cherylmanning9172]

Getting around where my Moms family fishes. Been to New River many times

[@Blissfulnessence]

The scenery there is so beautiful. Lush and green. Haven't smelled real honeysuckle since my childhood... Too bad the place has such a dark history with all those mur ders. Thanks for the tour. It was quite fascinating!

[@sharongarrett6624]

Old train stations had many doors because trains were longer than the platforms. Passengers would have to walk through the train to get to their seats. The doors were placed at intervals along the train so that passengers could enter and exit the train at the platform. This was also done for safety reasons as it allowed passengers to quickly exit the train in case of an emergency. Thank you so much for the historical tour. You make it extra special when you explore the hidden.

[@juanitawest976]

Thank you for this amazing video. I just subbed.

[@luannyates5199]

Beautiful part of the country

[@YourRealityTech]

I drove down there for the first time this weekend and walked around the area for a bit. Such a beautiful part of West Virginia! I need to drive down from Maryland a bit more and explore more of the state!

[@WVJeeper1968]

My back yard!😊 The bricks in front of the post office have names of people that lived there

[@Sherrill965]

I love trains.....that sound is my lullaby.

[@tedlawrence4189]

Fascinating and beautiful place. America is changing,but not always,for the better.

[@cindymeyer5585]

Thank you for taking us on this ghost town trip.

[@DeviousKnitter70]

Sure is a pretty area! Great learning about this town! Too bad the big hotel is gone!

[@SearchingNewAdventures]

It's amazing and they have made it where, we are planning, to travel down there from Vermont for the history and SHINE! 😂😂

[@jennyames6532]

Love the Mountains

[@wondergirl367]

Another great video. I just watched the 1987 movie Matewan, and Thurmond was the perfect set. James Earl Jones was a fabulous actor -- glad to see him in the movie. I loved Kevin Tighe in the TV show "Emergency" -- too bad he played a Baldwin-Felts guy.

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@michaelbragg6903]

James Earl Jones said in the two dvd set of Matewan that his role as Few Clothes was his most favorite movie role.

[@michaelbragg6903]

There used to be two big water tanks by the post office but CSX tore them down in the 90’s. You were standing where the Lafayette hotel used to be. The Bank and the Goodman-Kincaid building beside it used to be the Banker’s Club hotel and restaurant. People used to stay there when they came to go rafting. The two buildings had a breezeway between them. The rooms were cheap but there was only one bathroom per floor.

[@barbaramilli980]

Love exploring Thurmond. The direction the trains were going takes them through a tunnel called Stretchers Neck Tunnel, it comes out at Prince at the "main" train station. The road on the Dun Glen side takes you to Stone Cliff, across a bridge into Thayer. You can follow that road into Prince but you would have needed the Silverado or the SXS, it gets rough after you pass Thayer. There used to be a miners hospital up through there called McKendree but there's only foundations left now. I roamed all through there in my teens and 20's. Heather, keep up the great work researching the history. Leo, bless your heart, I fuss at you all the time for doing the crazy things you do but you do get the best footage. You two keep making videos and I'll keep watching!

[@SearchingNewAdventures]

Love the added history

[@charliepc56]

I remember that awesome scene in the movie "Matewan" where the baldwin Phelps agents are walking down the tracks with the depot and bridge in the background, and the guy asks the younger guy, "ever hear of the Hatfields and McCoys son." Looks like a nice place to visit. Thank Leo and Heather!

[@kerrydennison7947]

You would think with this place violent history there should be a very large graveyard around there somewhere, it stands to reason they had to dispose of the bodies in some manner even if there were nothing more than transients that died around the town, and I was thinking with the rich coal mining history of your area Leo and Heather there should be a lot of coal miners graveyards that were normally put out by the mining companies for miners killed underground that had no family to claim the body, now up here in the Michigan copper mine region, almost every mining company of any consequence did have a graveyard for the miners and their families, and from reading the history of the great Calumet and heckler mining company they used to send agents down to the coal mining region for the specified purpose of recruiting miners away from coal mining up to the copper region, this mainly occurred after the 1913/14 copper strike up here, once the strike was finally settled the mining companies found themselves in a severe shortage of labour, it was estimated that about 72% of all the underground miners left Michigan's copper region and went out to bisbee Arizona n the North Dakota copper mining region, main reason was just the survival of the family, and the western federation of miners had already settled with the large mining companies out west such as the homestake mining company, and had much better money, conditions of living. Many coal miners that were blackballed out of Virginia, Pennsylvania,West Virginia n Kentucky wound up working in the copper mines in Michigan or in the iron mine,s... And then you had the loose term called the Gypsy miners they were mostly highly-skilled underground miner,s that would work for a company for a couple of paydays n then move on to another mining company that recruited them for their skills and paid better, I sure do enjoy your channel keep up the good work❤

[@babs7179]

Great job! Visited last year, what a gem of a place!

[@judypierce7028]

You are going to an exciting place in WV. I have visited Thurmond, but only by train. There is an organization in Huntington that offers from time to time a train ride in antique cars on loan from individuals and corporations. They do this two weekends in October., They have not done this since the pandemic. Well, about 10 years ago, I went on one of the trips and we stopped in Thurmond. It was great. When we visited, I remember there were 2 people who still lived in the area. The train depot is interesting. I believe you are next to New River. Thank you for this great memory of a historic town in WV. This was an awesome video.

[@TennesseeTrio]

What a neat place to explore! Gorgeous scenery too!

[@kingarthur666.6]

Both of you loving people have been so helpful in my recovery thanks for helping an old man who hasn't left the house in years God bless you both and your family please stay safe Godspeed ❣️

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Our pleasure! God bless you and know we appreciate you very much!

[@feedbackphil7703]

Nice drone work

[@paperflowers319]

This is a great video i enjoyed it so much.thank you.☺👍💚🌳

[@thehillbillyfiles]

So glad!

[@junglejane2824]

That'd be cool if we could go into the train depot when it's open. Great tour. Absolutely beautiful scenery! Love history. Ty Leo & Heather.

[@stevelechner8967]

That would be awesome also houses be awesome to explore and to walk I love old houses

[@stevelechner8967]

Thank you Leo and Heather I enjoyed the history so thank you I love you guys

[@dcwallace9930]

Your new name is "Outlaw Leo"! lol Never lost, just temporarily misplaced.

[@jparker59able]

What a great place to explore. Wish I could be there.

[@bethgiesey9405]

A once bustling town. Larger than it seemed. So coo!. Thank you for taking us along. I enjoy these adventures so much

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Our pleasure!

[@moparornocar3764]

Been through there many times on the trains Russell to Hinton. Beautiful days like this and frozen ice splattered into the trees at the falls.

[@lisamccleary1637]

The city hall looks no bigger than an outhouse 😂😂😂😂

[@barbarascofield6683]

What a cool place. Would love to visit.

[@corinnerichardson9093]

Really enjoyable fun trip. Shame there were no snakes for Leo to play with. More like that please. Thanks for sharing.

[@jmorgan5252]

Fantastic Video Leo and Heather it really got my imagination to working Thanks

[@cathymcglasson6947]

I think your right it does resemble a cannon but I think it's an old steam engine of sorts.

[@beverlycompher5563]

Love your videos thinking about selling moving to WV or Ky. Some those homes look good enough to fix up. 💜

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Absolutely! Its a great place to live, Id visit some areas, because they are all different

[@donnajones-od9qs]

Yes l hope to movd to West Virgina too some day. Right now im in Ky.

[@sherrilee230]

Now thats my kind of town i love it. Thank you for sharing. About like where my uncle lived in Sawyer's Bar California.

[@cathymcglasson6947]

Wow yeppers it's an old town for sure.

[@ruthshelton-tp9ie]

They caught a lady sprite at ;- -- 20:20 -- Foot tap then you hear the nice lady say; " Come in!"

[@dorothybentley6429]

Leo that’s called a rock wall my grandparents had one behind there house that my grandpa build he haul rocks from the creek to build it.I believe that was the thing back then.

[@Simplysamantha2005]

Another spectacular video! Such a beautiful area too! Ghost town and all. Lol

[@lruthwinston7124]

I heard the same thing. A woman saying come in. Do a video on Charleston West Virginia. Kanawha county..

[@jennyames6532]

My Step-dad was from there.

[@beepayton5984]

My husband and I took the New River Scenic Train Tour one Oct. when the leaves were turning colors. It stopped at several places, one being Thurmond. We explored the area and were able to walk out on the bridge. The ride ended in Hinton where a street fair was going on. The train turned around and brought us back to Huntington. We saw many wonderful sights on that ride. Glad we were able to do it

[@belindaturnersmith5610]

Y’all got some very cool footage! The colors are so vibrant, it almost feels like I’m there. Leo, ya Billygoat. Don’t ya know if we would have been kids, we have a good ol’ time exploring everything.

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Thank you so much!

[@stevelechner8967]

😊 there restoring the town

[@stevelechner8967]

Thank you for liking it

[@michaelbedinger4121]

Awesome video! Thank you very much Leo and Heather. When the city council meets, however often it meets, I wonder 🤔 what is there to talk about? The town itself really looked pretty cool. I particularly liked the railroad depot, and the water 💧 tower. I wonder 🤔 if there is still any water in it? A couple of the abandoned houses looked like they were still in pretty good shape, considering. Thank you very much again, Leo and Heather, have a great day. 😊

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Good question! thank you!

[@edwardkellogg1284]

I have to say Leo you took us on another enjoyable tour of this cool town. Its hard to believe that a hand full of people live there. The town does look well kept. It would have been funny if you could have gotten in the bank to look for left behind cash. Nice drone footage in beginning of video. Take care Leo and Heather.

[@dontaylor3039]

Gorgeous view

[@indycharlie]

Pretty cool place . So , do the people who live there . Work for the town or U.S. Gov ? Mary would only be like 68-69 .

[@securityconsultant9036]

Pretty cool video , I liked the stonewalls mother too. I know I keep throwing locations and you probably months deep in schedules. But harpers ferry would be cool.

[@bekoniasteel]

We were supposed to go Friday. But after a day of caving at Lost World Caverns we stuck by the cabin and did the endless wall trail. Excited to watch this. Next trip we will be going here.

[@SearchingNewAdventures]

I know, I am not, going to be the First comment about safety, you have to be in prestige condition in order to bring continued hillbilly files. Love you Both! Watch that footing😳😳😳 really love your videos and history.

[@johnhebert3855]

Nice cigar smoking porch.

[@sandyg515]

What makes your videos such a pleasure to watch is your zest for adventure. Thank you for the interesting journeys.

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Thank you

[@woodymallory9058]

Beautiful...Do you ever stop the video and switch to camera mode to take photos? You should make a video of photos from your travels

[@normajeanhedlund7429]

Watching you on our tv via KZbin and on my phone so I can thank you. 😊

[@TayloredTalks77]

New to the channel love it I am going to do this tomorrow my great granny did this and I have wanted to do this ever since I was a little girl and I'm 47 now thank you so much for doing this it made me feel her again I'm in east Tennessee

[@adamcravener11]

Best video on KZbin about Thurmond right here

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Wow thanks!!

[@conditionallyunconditional5691]

I might be bugging out to that location. Its not too far from my present.

[@lonniehhenson7925]

Beautiful old town I wouldn't have a problem living there reminds me of Kentucky growing up as a young teenager in the sixties

[@sandywright8701]

The buildings seem to be in amazing shape for being abandoned. What year were they last occupied?

[@SandyzSerious]

BEST video!!!

[@lucianestridge7964]

Thurman holds two notable facts, one is for the fourteen year poker game and it is the only town without a main street.😂

[@cladqueen8054]

Y’all don’t mess around very interesting place

[@melindaschluter1669]

Beautiful place.

[@michaelbragg6903]

The Cardinal stops Sunday, Wednesday and Friday morning and evening eastbound and westbound. The Depot is considered a flag stop.

[@ericmozur4796]

John Hatfield Obituary John M. Hatfield, age 47, of Erie passed away on Sunday, June 10, 2018 at UPMC Hamot. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Quinn Funeral Home,West 9th & Liberty St. Published by Erie Times-News on Jun. 17, 2018.

[@truracer20]

Love your videos. Any chance of y'all using any color but white for text? It's da MN g hard to read against bright backgrounds.

[@thehillbillyfiles]

every time we use another color someone else says they cant read it lol, we cant seem to win on that one

[@carolinejohnson845]

Thank you both for this wonderful tour of Thurmond. Google says the current population is 4. How far would the nearest grocery store be? Sure don’t have to worry about neighbors…..

[@michaelbragg6903]

About 10 minutes away in Oak Hill or 15 minutes away to Fayetteville and Walmart.

[@marlenejohnson5461]

Leo you and Heather make the most interesting videos. Love you both!

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Glad you like them!

[@tracidavis8991]

love this so much!

[@davidthurmond9016]

I I wonder back in the day did I have any kend folks that lived around there lol

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Hey I bet so!

[@Gotcha64]

Great adventure ❤

[@michaelbragg6903]

Good call to turn around and come back by the church and depot to leave. The small hill past commercial row and near the post boxes is very sketchy. I did it in a Chevy Malibu and I was concerned that my oil tank or gas tank would be affected but luckily not.

[@franceinegelven677]

I just subscb n I like u two n I like how through looking Frn back best part trying to tour inside if u can get in. Keep our trippen Fr those like me who loved adventure. I’m now older don’t want to go anywhere now that I’m a widow.

[@ShelleyDarby-u4i]

I love your logs I am doing my genealogy and love the cemetery s

[@teapotts8407]

There must be a cemetery close by.

[@michaelbragg6903]

@@teapotts8407 They are just citizens who lived there. One family has lived there since their ancestors first moved there.

[@mell682]

That place is absolutely beaufiful !

[@dorascott8286]

Great clip, thank you.

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Many thanks!

[@donnaelkins186]

Sure is sad it's a ghost town! I would love to visit this place. Thanks for sharing. I love your video's ❤😊

[@beepayton5984]

Another thing, I took an Amtrack to Va once and an elderly gentleman got on in Thurmond. He was alone and no one else around. He had a slip of paper, not a ticket, that had where he was headed and the amount he paid stamped with a signature. The conductor looked at it and took it without question. I guess he was expected to be there because the train stopped. This was probably around 2012. He carried a small duffle and a sack meal. It was strange

[@MegaBait1616]

I've been driving all over our Country since I retired.... WV people for the most put are good folks.... be well.

[@michaelbragg6903]

The decking would have been close to the freight station which was behind the depot.

[@michaelbragg6903]

The post office was originally the C & O commissary. It made Ripley’s Believe It or Not for doing over $6,000 dollars in business and never using cash. Scrip was the only currency used. After the post office closed in 1995, it became a store called Thurmond Supply. Snacks, water , souvenirs and mountain bikes could be rented there. It was operated by the Park Service librarian and her husband who lived in town.

[@michaelbragg6903]

They closed it when the water tanks were taken down.

[@nidyabronstrup2375]

Thank you I-have enjoyed this road trip like all the others❤️❤️❤️

[@thehillbillyfiles]

Thanks 🙏 we appreciate it

[@michaelbragg6903]

The Fatty Lipscomb house was also used in Matewan with the dining room , Hickey’s room and when Elma Radnor comes down the steps the night before the shootout scenes filmed in the house

[@Rhonda-Lynn-TN]

@ 20:06 a country speaking lady says come in? Who was that? It didn’t sound like Heather to me.

[@mkb7013]

I’m seeing some comments on here saying that it was Heather but it doesn’t sound like her and he doesn’t engage with it like he normally does with Heather.

[@michaelbragg6903]

I heard it too

[@JennySumpter179]

Yall are definitely in my neck.of the woods

[@archielynn3663]

that river is running strong what a hide away place cool place

[@michaelbragg6903]

That was just the coaling tower. The tanks probably were filled from the river to the tanks.

[@Amber12332]

Heather and Leo who said " come in " around 20:05 ???

[@teresakersey7864]

Cool town

[@lorieburk6418]

NICE LITTLE GHOST TOWN GOTTA BE A CEMETARY ROUND THR SOME WHERE'S

[@franceinegelven677]

That Ashley house gave my stomach a turn. Feels haunted😊

[@beverlydixon5921]

Love that bridge

[@dannychurch58]

Wow this is a good one yah

[@ruthshelton-tp9ie]

At -- 20:20 -- After the foot taping you can hear a sprite of a nice lady saying; "COME IN !"

[@beverlydixon5921]

Intresting

[@hannastrack4310]

Straight up that rd is called berry mountain

[@connie2558]

Leo, savings interest rates have finally up over 3%!! Nows the time to buy certificates! I bet the roads are winding to get to the town. Can your friend metal detect the town? Skateboarders would have fun on the ramps.

[@michaelbragg6903]

It’s part of the National Park so it’s doubtful if the Park Service would allow metal detecting.

[@ROCK.ON.]

😊. HEY YAW. ❤. YAW. MEAN IT. 😊..

[@Paula15541]

@ 3"14 to 3:18 there's a female voice that comes through clearly.