Visitors to McDowell County can shape their stay around different interests: the half-day Head of the Dragon tour highlights mountain views and small towns, while off-road trails, forests, and traces of mining history offer other options.
Scenic Route and Off-Road Trails
Head of the Dragon is a scenic half-day tour covering 89.6 miles. The route follows Highways 52, 161, 16, 83, and 80, passing connections to the Indian Ridge Trail System in Ashland, Northfork, and Keystone. Combining a road route with trail systems gives the outing a different character from a drive through the mountain landscape alone.
Indian Ridge connects to the three Hatfield-McCoy trail systems—Pinnacle Creek, Warrior, and Pocahontas—making longer off-road tours possible. The Indian Ridge Trail System offers trails at different difficulty levels, an important consideration when planning a tour to suit your plans. The Indian Ridge trailhead has a parking lot of more than two acres and restrooms on site. Permits and merchandise for Indian Ridge can be purchased at Ashland Resort.
The Ashland Company Store was built in 1907 by the Ashland Coal Company. Today, it serves as a well-stocked store and outfitter, especially for visitors to Ashland Resort and users of the nearby Indian Ridge trailhead on the Hatfield-McCoy Trails. The store’s Coal Camp Café serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner; offerings may change.
Forest Trails and Seasonal Nature
Panther State Forest is West Virginia’s southernmost state forest, located near Iaeger in McDowell County. Hikers have access to miles of interconnected trails and roads. Roads closed to vehicle traffic are also open to pedestrians. Wildflowers in the forest include Mayapple, Fire Pink, Touch-me-nots, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Bishop’s Cap, and Blood-root.
Panther Creek offers a distinct seasonal attraction: a four-mile stretch is stocked with trout in spring. This means different nature experiences are available throughout the year—forest trails and wildflowers on the one hand, and the stocked stretch of water in spring on the other.
Memorials and Mining History
The Kimball World War I Memorial was designed by Hassell T. Hicks in the Classical Greek style and dedicated on February 11, 1928. It was the first memorial erected in the United States honoring African American veterans of World War I and is now the only surviving memorial of its kind. Its history also includes deterioration, abandonment, and a fire in 1991, which left it in ruins; only the outer shell remains.
On January 10, 1940, 91 miners died in an explosion at the Pond Creek Number 1 mine in Bartley. A memorial erected by the United Mine Workers of America commemorates the miners who died in the disaster. The McDowell County Coal Miner’s Memorial also honors generations of miners: their names are engraved on granite slabs that surround the memorial and lie beneath its feet. Visitors can walk among the slabs and read the names.
Another wartime event occurred near the community of Premier on July 1, 1942. A military transport plane crashed there, killing all 21 members of the U.S. Army Air Corps on board. A memorial honoring the victims was erected near the crash site.
Cultural Sites and Industrial Traces
In Welch, the Commercial Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The Merci Boxcar of Welch is a French railway car given in gratitude for the aid provided by the United States. Martha H. Moore Riverfront Park offers views of the river and a large mural. In Ashland, interpretive signs at a stop on the National Coal Heritage Trail explain mining and the living conditions of miners.
Transportation routes also tell the story of coal mining: the Twin Branch Tunnel, also known as Davy Tunnel, was originally built for a railroad that carried coal from the Twin Branch area and was later converted for use as a road. It was reportedly dug through a sandstone mountain using simple methods. The book Rocket Boys recalls the decline of coal mining in the town of Coalwood.
Discover more destinations: Bradshaw, Summers, Putnam County, Raleigh, Barbour County, Monroe County, Marshall County, Fayette County.
For the broader travel overview: West Virginia.
