Bluefield

History

The history of Bluefield began in the 18th century, when the Davidson and Bailey families settled in a rugged and remote part of what is now southern West Virginia. Others joined them, and they built a small village with a mill, a church, a one-room schoolhouse, and a fort for defending the settlement against invasions by the Shawnee tribe, which had a village on the banks of the Bluestone River. In 1882, the descendants of the Davidson and Bailey families sold a portion of their land, when Captain John Fields of the Norfolk and Western Railway pioneered the area and began building a new railroad through the hills of Bluefield. The city is traditionally thought to be named after the chicory flowers in the area, which give the fields a purplish blue hue during the summer. Research has shown that this settlement, also known as Higginbotham's Summit in the 1880s, was probably named for the coal fields that were developed in the area of the Bluestone River. Beneath the land of the Davidsons and Baileys lay the largest and richest deposit of bituminous coal in the world. The first seam was discovered in nearby Pocahontas, Virginia, in the backyard of Jordan Nelson. President Frederick Kimball of the Norfolk and Western Railway described this as the "most spectacular find on the continent and indeed perhaps of the entire planet." The coal seam had been mentioned much earlier in Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, but it was not mined until 1882. Around that time, coal mines were developed in the area around Harman, Bluefield, War, and Pocahontas, which together were known as the Pocahontas Coal Fields. They helped support the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The development of the coal industry in this area created a boom in the local and national…

Geography

Bluefield is located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia across the state border from Bluefield, Virginia. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land. Bluefield is a mountain city with a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb) bordering on subtropical highland climate or temperate oceanic climate (Cfb), due to its elevation. It is characterized by moderately cold, snowy winters and pleasantly warm to hot summers. The normal monthly mean daily temperature ranges from in January to in July; }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  1,881
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  1,263
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,242
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,201
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,104
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,084
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,056
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,016