By William “Skip” Deegans
“Union Manganese Mine Said Rich” was the headline in the Hinton Daily News on October 24, 1949. William B. King, mine superintendent and former Greenbrier County Sheriff, said the mine he and Pittsburgh banker and expert on iron ore were developing showed “evidence of being one of the richest supplies of ore to date in this country.”
King and Collard had leased 18,000 acres of mineral rights near Waitville in Monroe County and were mining 20-30 tons of ore daily that were being sent to the Electro-Metallurgical plant at Alloy for testing.
Manganese is a critical element in making steel. There has long been an interest in developing manganese mining in the United States because domestic steel makers have been dependent on importing it from foreign countries, especially Russia and China. The first prospect for manganese in Monroe County seems to have been made in 1906 by two Elkins prospectors. In 1916, W. W. Goodykoontz and others sank a shaft and mined manganese-bearing clay. In the 1930s there were several small active mining operations near Sweet Springs including the Iron Mountain Manganese Corporation, Monroe Manganese Mining Co., Appalachian Ores Co., Sweet Springs Manganese Co., and the Traynham Mine. These mines were handicapped by the absence of rail service. Since the Norfolk & Western rail spur to Paint Bank, Virginia had been abandoned, ore had to be trucked to Alleghany, Virginia and loaded on the Chesapeake & Ohio railway.
A short-lived Manganese mining development near Anthony Creek in Greenbrier County came to national attention in 1947 when Kentucky Congressman Andrew J. May was linked to a bribery scandal involving a Greenbrier County mine. It was one of several of the Congressman’s scandals, and he was sent to prison at age 74.
The Manganese rush in Monroe County fizzled out like similar gold and silver mining rushes there.
Sources: Greenbrier Independent, The West Virginia News, Hinton Daily News, Manganese Deposits of The Sweet Springs District by Harry S. Ladd.
