Thurmond, a mostly deserted old Appalachian coal town in
West Virginia. (Its population in the 2010 census was 5.) During the heyday of coal mining in the New River Gorge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Thurmond was a prosperous town with a number of businesses and facilities for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. The town was the filming location for John Sayles's 1987 movie "Matewan." As of 2015, much of Thurmond is owned by the National Park Service for the New River Gorge National River. The C&O passenger railway depot in town, renovated in 1995, functions as a Park Service visitor center, and occasional coal trains still pass through. Thurmond, incorporated in 1903, was named for onetime Confederate Army captain William Thurmond, who had surveyed the area. Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2015.