West Virginia holds 178 documented abandoned places on the Urbex Maps atlas -- a count that understates the density of the state's post-industrial landscape. The Mountain State built its identity on coal and timber, and when those industries contracted, they left behind not just mines and sawmills but entire communities: company towns where the company store, the company church, the company school, and the company houses all stood because a single corporation had built them. When the mine closed, everything closed. West Virginia has more ghost towns per capita than any state in the eastern United States. Every abandoned town in West Virginia tells the same story: coal ran out, the company left, the people followed. Some of these towns -- Thurmond, Nuttallburg, Kaymoor -- are now within the New River Gorge National Park, making them accessible, federally managed, and increasingly documented.
The state's most famous abandoned building is the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, a 242,000-square-foot Gothic limestone complex that operated as a psychiatric hospital from 1864 to 1994 and is now open for tours ranging from historical walkthroughs to overnight ghost hunts. The asylum's scale -- it is the second-largest hand-cut stone building in the world, after the Kremlin -- makes it one of the most architecturally imposing abandoned structures in America. West Virginia also holds the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, a Victorian Gothic prison that operated from 1876 to 1995 and has become one of the most visited paranormal tourism destinations in the country.
This guide covers 10 of the most significant abandoned places in West Virginia -- from the New River Gorge coal towns to the McDowell County steel communities to the Mason County institutional complex -- with free GPS coordinates on the Urbex Maps interactive atlas, verified YouTube embeds, and factual historical context.
Free urbex GPS: how Urbex Maps works
Every spot in this guide has a free GPS pin on the Urbex Maps interactive atlas. No account required for these 10 -- just coordinates with satellite imagery and access notes. The full West Virginia database has 178 documented locations, covering abandoned coal towns, institutional ruins, industrial complexes, and Appalachian company housing.
1. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston is the largest hand-cut stone building in America -- a 242,000-square-foot Gothic limestone structure built between 1858 and 1881 by architect Richard Andrews following the Kirkbride Plan, the 19th-century therapeutic architecture model that placed patients in long linear wings extending from a central administration block to maximize fresh air and natural light. Construction was interrupted by the Civil War, during which the partially completed building served as a Union garrison. The asylum admitted its first patients in 1864 and operated continuously for 130 years, closing in 1994 when the state moved toward community-based mental health care.
At its peak in the 1950s, the asylum housed over 2,400 patients in a facility designed for 250 -- a ratio that characterized the overcrowding crisis in American state psychiatric institutions throughout the mid-20th century. The 1880 Kirkbride building is a masterwork of institutional Gothic architecture, with limestone walls three feet thick and a central tower that rises above the Lewis County countryside. The complex also includes later additions built as the patient population expanded: a chronic ward, an infirmary, a forensic unit, and support buildings that spread across the hilltop campus.
The Trans-Allegheny was sold at auction in 2007 to a private operator who has developed it into a significant heritage tourism destination. Historical tours, ghost tours, and overnight paranormal investigations are offered year-round. It is one of the most completely preserved Kirkbride asylums in the United States -- the core building is intact, the patient wards are accessible, and the surrounding campus is well documented.
2. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, Rock
Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in Rock, Mercer County, is one of the most widely photographed abandoned amusement parks in the United States -- a collection of rusting swing rides, a Ferris wheel shell, and deteriorating concession structures sitting on a site with a documented history stretching back to the 18th century. Before the amusement park, the land was an 18th-century Native American settlement site; before that, it was the location of a 1783 massacre in which Shawnee warriors killed members of the Clay family who had settled on tribal land. Archaeological evidence of the settlement, the massacre site, and subsequent farm occupation underlies the abandoned fairground.
The amusement park itself opened in the 1920s and operated intermittently through the mid-20th century, closing definitively in 1966 after two children died in accidents on the rides -- one struck by a ride in motion, one drowned in the lake. The park's owner at the time of closure locked the gates and left the equipment in place rather than demolishing it. The rides have been rusting since then, the swing chairs hanging at angles, the Ferris wheel frame visible above the tree line.
The current owner, Gaylord White, acquired the property and has opened it for tours and an annual Halloween event called "Lake Shawnee Haunted Attraction." The combination of the genuinely documented history of violence at the site -- Native American settlement, massacre, child deaths -- and the photogenic decay of the fairground equipment has made Lake Shawnee a fixture of urban exploration coverage for decades. The site is privately owned and managed; tours are ticketed.
3. Thurmond Ghost Town, Fayette County
Thurmond in Fayette County is the best-preserved coal-era ghost town in the Appalachians -- a community that existed entirely because of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the coal traffic it carried out of the New River Gorge. At its peak between 1900 and 1930, Thurmond processed more freight tonnage through its rail yard than Cincinnati -- an astonishing statistic for a community that never had more than a few hundred permanent residents. The town was essentially a coal-loading operation, a bank, a hotel, and a handful of commercial buildings, all serving the constant flow of coal trains through the gorge.
Thurmond's setting is extraordinary: the town sits on a narrow shelf between the New River and a near-vertical cliff, accessible only by the railway or by foot from the rim above. When automobile roads bypassed the gorge in the mid-20th century and diesel locomotives reduced the need for the extensive rail servicing facilities that had sustained the town, Thurmond's commercial life collapsed rapidly. The Dun Glen Hotel burned. Businesses closed. By the 1970s, the permanent population had dropped to the single digits.
The National Park Service, which manages the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, has stabilized the remaining structures: the Chesapeake and Ohio depot (1904), a bank building, a storefront row, and several residences. The Amtrak Cardinal still stops at Thurmond -- one of the only places in America where a passenger train stops at a ghost town -- three days a week. The population as of recent census counts is five people. The town is publicly accessible within the national park. Thurmond is also featured in our 50 States, 50 Iconic Urbex Spots guide.
4. Kaymoor Coal Mine, New River Gorge
Kaymoor on the south rim of the New River Gorge is one of the most intact abandoned coal mine complexes in the eastern United States -- the surface remains of a mine that operated from 1899 to 1962, dropping coal from the seam at the rim level down to the river below via a long incline. The Kaymoor mine served the New River seam, a high-quality coal prized for its coking properties and widely exported for steel production. At its peak, Kaymoor employed hundreds of miners and produced thousands of tons of coal per day.
The access to the Kaymoor site within the national park is via a 790-step staircase descending from the New River Gorge bridge area to the river level -- a descent that passes through the forest and arrives at the preserved surface ruins: the powerhouse, the mine portal, the coke ovens (126 of them, arranged in a long row along the gorge wall), and the infrastructure of the tramway that moved coal from the seam to the loading facility. The HAER (Historic American Engineering Record) documented Kaymoor in the 1980s, producing an extensive photographic and architectural record before the site was incorporated into the national park.
The combination of the dramatic gorge setting, the intact engineering infrastructure, and the 790-step access makes Kaymoor one of the most physically demanding and visually rewarding sites in the New River Gorge park. The coke ovens -- stone arches in a long row, each one a sealed chamber where coal was converted to coke -- are particularly distinctive. The site is open to the public within the national park.
5. Nuttallburg Coal Complex, Fayette County
Nuttallburg in the New River Gorge is famous for its coal tipple -- a massive wooden structure built in the 1920s by the Ford Motor Company, which purchased the mine in 1923 to secure a coal supply for its steel operations. Henry Ford's ownership introduced the industrial efficiency methods Ford had applied at River Rouge: the Nuttallburg tipple is a mechanized loading structure of extraordinary scale, designed to load coal directly from the seam into railcars at the gorge floor with minimal manual handling. Ford sold the mine in 1942, and it operated under subsequent ownership until closing in 1958.
The tipple at Nuttallburg is the most intact surviving example of a Ford-era coal processing facility in the country. The National Park Service has stabilized the structure rather than restoring it fully -- the goal is arrested decay, preserving the scale and character of the industrial infrastructure while preventing collapse. The wooden conveyor structure, the head house, and the loading chutes are all present, making Nuttallburg one of the most photogenic coal heritage sites in the gorge.
Access to Nuttallburg within the New River Gorge National Park is via a trail from the Cunard access area, a roughly 1.5-mile walk along the river. The site is publicly accessible; the NPS has placed interpretive signage throughout the complex explaining the Ford ownership and the technology of coal loading. The adjacent mine portal and the remains of the company housing that once served the miners are also present, giving Nuttallburg a more complete townsite character than most of the gorge mines.
6. Gary (US Steel Ghost Town), McDowell County
Gary in McDowell County is the largest surviving US Steel company town in West Virginia -- a community built from scratch beginning in 1902 by the United States Steel Corporation to house the workers at its Gary District mines, which together formed one of the largest single coal-mining operations in American history. Named for Elbert H. Gary, the first chairman of US Steel, the Gary complex eventually encompassed eight numbered mines (Gary No. 1 through Gary No. 8) producing metallurgical coal for the Gary, Indiana steel mills at the other end of the supply chain.
The company built everything: churches, schools, a hotel, a hospital, company stores, and row upon row of worker housing -- segregated by race in the Jim Crow pattern of the era, with separate facilities for white miners, Black miners, and the Hungarian and Italian immigrant workers who made up the labor force. At its peak, the Gary complex employed thousands of workers and their families, creating a community of over 10,000 people in one of the most remote valleys of McDowell County.
The decline began when the steel industry contracted and when cheaper metallurgical coal became available from other sources. The Gary mines closed progressively through the 1980s, and the community that depended on them shed population at the same pace. Today, Gary has a population of a few hundred people in a landscape of empty company housing, closed institutional buildings, and the infrastructure of a town designed for tens of thousands. The remaining buildings -- particularly the Gary National Bank, the company store, and the Gary Hotel -- are significant industrial heritage structures in various states of deterioration.
7. Coalwood (October Sky Town), McDowell County
Coalwood in McDowell County is famous as the setting of Homer Hickam's memoir Rocket Boys (1998) and the subsequent film October Sky (1999) -- the true story of a coal miner's son who taught himself rocketry in the late 1950s and went on to become a NASA engineer. Hickam's father was the mine superintendent, and the Coalwood he describes is a classic Appalachian company town: a single employer (the Olga Coal Company, later Olga No. 1), a single store, a single school, and a community whose entire existence depended on a seam of coal in the McDowell County mountains.
The Coalwood mine closed in 1986, and most of the community has been abandoned since then. The Coalwood Company Store -- the central commercial and social institution of the company town, a two-story brick building where miners purchased goods on credit against their wages -- survives as the most significant remaining structure. It has been stabilized and is accessible as part of a Homer Hickam heritage trail that the state of West Virginia has developed to capitalize on the film's continuing popularity.
The town site includes the remains of the mine buildings, the Olga No. 1 tipple, the superintendent's house (the Hickam family home), a church, and the school. October Sky was not filmed in Coalwood itself -- production used a town in Tennessee -- but the actual Coalwood is a more complete and more genuinely moving experience than the film set, precisely because the decay is real and the history documented. McDowell County's broader story of post-coal economic collapse is legible in the landscape around Coalwood.
8. West Virginia State Penitentiary, Moundsville
The West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville is a Victorian Gothic fortress built between 1866 and 1876 on a design that deliberately evoked medieval European castle architecture -- crenellated towers, pointed arches, and a central gatehouse that looks more like a baron's stronghold than a 19th-century American prison. The choice of Gothic Revival for prison design was intentional in the era: the architecture was supposed to communicate permanence, authority, and the weight of institutional power to both inmates and the public.
The prison operated from 1876 to 1995, housing West Virginia's general prison population for 119 years across multiple generations of expansion and reform. Its history includes 94 executions -- initially by hanging (from the gallows inside the north hall), then by electric chair beginning in 1951. The Sugar Shack -- the prison's recreation area -- was the site of multiple riots. The facility's closure in 1995 was ordered by the courts after judges found the overcrowded conditions unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment.
The Moundsville Economic Development Council purchased the penitentiary in 1995 and has developed it into one of the most successful prison heritage tourism operations in the country. Historical tours, ghost tours, and overnight paranormal investigations are offered year-round, and the facility is consistently ranked among the most haunted locations in America by paranormal tourism outlets. The Gothic exterior is intact, the cell blocks are accessible, and the execution equipment remains on display. It is also cited in our 50 States, 50 Iconic Urbex Spots guide.
9. Lakin State Hospital, Mason County
Lakin State Hospital in Mason County holds a particularly dark place in West Virginia's institutional history: it was one of the few state psychiatric hospitals in America established explicitly for Black patients, a product of the segregated mental health system that operated in West Virginia from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. White patients went to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston or to Spencer State Hospital; Black patients went to Lakin, a facility that consistently received less funding, less staffing, and less attention than the institutions serving white West Virginians.
The hospital was established in the late 1800s on the banks of the Ohio River in Mason County, and it expanded through the early 20th century as West Virginia's Black population grew. By mid-century, Lakin was serving patients from across the state in conditions that reflected the systematic underfunding of segregated institutions. Desegregation orders in the 1950s and 1960s began integrating West Virginia's psychiatric facilities, and Lakin's role as a racially designated institution ended. The hospital continued operating as a general state psychiatric facility until closing in recent decades, and the complex has been vacant since.
The Lakin campus on the Ohio River -- a collection of brick institutional buildings in a rural river landscape -- represents a chapter of American mental health history that is less documented than the more famous Kirkbride institutions. The site is not currently open to the public, and the buildings are deteriorating. The GPS coordinates on the Urbex Maps atlas document the location; access would require permission from current property holders.
10. Kayford Mountain, Kanawha County
Kayford Mountain in Kanawha County is not a single abandoned building but an entire mountaintop removal coal operation -- a landscape where the summit of the mountain was blasted off to access the coal seam below, leaving behind a plateau of exposed rock, spoil piles, and the infrastructure of active and former mining operations stretching for miles. Kayford has been the focus of environmental and community preservation efforts led by Larry Gibson (1946-2012), who refused to sell his family's ancestral land on the mountain even as the surrounding area was purchased and mined, creating a small island of intact forest within a vast industrial moonscape.
The mountaintop removal method -- technically known as surface mining with valley fill -- removes up to 800 feet of mountain to reach coal seams, depositing the waste rock in adjacent valleys. The Kayford area has been mined this way since the 1970s. The scale of the landscape transformation is only visible from above -- aerial photographs and drone footage show the contrast between the stripped mountaintops and the intact forest of Gibson's family property with a clarity that ground-level visits cannot fully convey.
Larry Gibson's family property -- "Kayford Mountain Forever" -- was deeded to a land trust before his death and is preserved as an example of what the pre-mining Appalachian landscape looked like. His cabin and the family cemetery remain on the mountain. The surrounding industrial landscape is active mining and not generally accessible, but the Gibson property hosts occasional tours by arrangement with the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation. The coordinates documented here are for the general Kayford Mountain area in Kanawha County.
FAQ
Is the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum open to the public?
Yes. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston offers historical tours, ghost tours, and overnight paranormal investigations year-round. Tours are ticketed and must be booked in advance through the asylum's website. It is one of the most completely preserved Kirkbride asylums in the United States and is open on a regular schedule.
Can you visit Lake Shawnee Amusement Park?
The park is privately owned and requires tickets for admission. The current owner operates "Lake Shawnee Haunted Attraction" in October and offers tours at other times. Check the Lake Shawnee website for current hours and ticket prices. Do not attempt to access the property outside of official tour times.
Is Thurmond accessible?
Yes. Thurmond is within the New River Gorge National Park and is publicly accessible. The Amtrak Cardinal stops at Thurmond three days a week. The NPS depot is open seasonally. The ghost town's commercial district can be explored on foot. Overnight parking is available at the depot lot.
What happened to the coal mines in New River Gorge?
Kaymoor operated from 1899 to 1962; Nuttallburg from the 1870s through 1958. Both are now preserved within the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, established as a national park in 2020. The NPS maintains the sites for public access and has placed interpretive signage throughout the ruins.
Is West Virginia State Penitentiary worth visiting?
Yes, especially for those interested in prison history or paranormal tourism. The Gothic exterior is extraordinary, the cell blocks are intact, and the tour guides are knowledgeable about the facility's history. Book tickets in advance, particularly for weekend ghost tours which sell out regularly.
What is the status of Coalwood today?
Coalwood is a semi-abandoned company town with a small remaining population. The Coalwood Company Store has been stabilized and is part of a heritage trail tied to Homer Hickam's memoir Rocket Boys and the film October Sky. The site is in McDowell County, accessible by car. Some structures are on private land; respect posted signs.
Conclusion
West Virginia's 178 documented abandoned places concentrate the full weight of Appalachian industrial history -- from the Kirkbride asylum in Weston to the mountaintop removal landscape of Kayford, from the New River Gorge coal towns to the McDowell County steel-company communities. The free GPS coordinates for all 10 sites in this guide are on the interactive atlas. West Virginia rewards explorers who engage with the economic and social history behind the ruins -- the places are compelling precisely because the forces that built and abandoned them were so consequential.
Explore more abandoned places in the US
- ●Abandoned Places in Virginia: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Abandoned Places in North Carolina: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Abandoned Places in Pennsylvania: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Abandoned Places in Tennessee: 10 Iconic Urbex Spots
- ●Ghost Towns USA: 20 Iconic Places
- ●Abandoned Places USA: 50 States, 50 Iconic Urbex Spots
