Wheelwright

History

Before the arrival of coal mining jobs, many locals lived by farming or logging. The land which would later become Wheelwright was owned by the Hall family. In 1916, the Halls sold their land to the Elk Horn Coal Company. That same year a post office was established with the name Wheelwright, named for the company's president at that time, Jere H. Wheelwright. The city was officially incorporated in 1917. Elk Horn leased its mines from the Consolidation Coal. In 1930, Consolidation sold the Wheelwright coal camp to Inland Steel. In 1966, Inland Steel sold the camp to Island Creek Coal. The mine closed in the 1970s. After the mine was abandoned, the Kentucky Housing Corporation purchased the town, rehabilitated the homes, and sold the homes to residents. Wheelwright is a coal town. When the city was founded, the coal company built housing, stores, churches, schools, and medical facilities to provide for the miners' families. Miners employed the coal company would have used these services to provide food and other necessities to their families. At one time, the coal company had at least 2,300 miners on its payroll. Wheelwright was home to one of the pack horse libraries in the 1930s and early 1940s. In 2018, Big Creek Missions purchased a building that was a former church, and repurposed it to act as a Christian Mission Retreat Center. Since 2018, Big Creek has helped the population of Floyd County with architecture, landscaping, and food banks.

Geography

Wheelwright is located at the southern end of Floyd County in the valley of the Right Fork Otter Creek. There is just one way in and out of the city, via the Junction Bridge, located in Bypro, also referred to as "Wheelwright Junction", on state route 122. The original metal structure was replaced by concrete in 1959. This bridge is now known as the Timothy Hall Memorial Bridge, in honor of City Commissioner Timothy Hall, who died in a car crash. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.

Most recent

• M 2.74 — 2024-05-22
  18 km SSE of Hyden, Kentucky
• M 2.56 — 2021-11-21
  9 km SSW of Abingdon, Virginia
• M 3.1 — 2021-10-26
  Tennessee-Virginia border region
• M 2.58 — 2021-02-12
  9 km NNW of Richlands, Virginia
• M 2.65 — 2020-11-09
  10 km NNW of Richlands, Virginia
• M 2.72 — 2018-01-22
  13 km ENE of Flat Lick, Kentucky