Ride a Cart into the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine

Tour Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine

For a truly unique experience in West Virginia, make a point to visit Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. Take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a guided cart tour into a real coal mine that is led by a veteran miner! Learn about the mining process and the day-to-day lives of those that worked and lived in the coal camps. This is an awesome way to learn about the vital role coal mining played in the region and see how it still affects the area today.  

The Basics

The Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine is in Beckley West Virginia. For only $22 per person, you will get a guided tour into a real coal mine, access to the coal museum and Youth Museum along with several buildings from the coal camp and Mountain Homestead. Depending on how much time you spend exploring the buildings and museums you can expect to spend anywhere between 2- 4 hours at this stop. The Exhibition Coal Mine is currently open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. They are closed during the winter months.

Places to Stay

Depending on what else you are planning to do in the area, you can easily find a place to pitch your tent because there is no shortage of gorgeous state parks and campgrounds in West Virginia. There is even a campground onsite! There are 17 electric sites available and each costs around $30/night.  

If you would rather spend the night in a hotel room, please feel free to use our link below to find the perfect one for you.

Things to Do

There are plenty of things to do and see with your ticket to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. Your ticket will also get you into the Youth Museum and the Mountain Homestead. This means you will have access to the mine tour, restored buildings, museums, and interactive play and puzzle stations for plenty of fun!

The Company Store

When you first pull into the parking lot, the first building you will enter is called the Company Store. This is where you will buy your entrance ticket. The counter is just to your left when you walk into the main doors. Behind the ticket counter is the gift shop area, though some items do overflow into the main room. You will also find some smaller displays in the main room like a diagram of the coal mining camp and information about the mining tour and Youth Museum.

Gift Shop

The gift shop is full of fun souvenirs and Knick-knacks. They have a nice selection of local crafts such as handmade soaps, jellies, and sauces. They also have gemstones, coal figures, blankets, clothing, books, and numerous other items for sale. We were able to find some great Christmas gifts for our family and friends!

Beckley Coal Mine Museum

The Beckley Coal Mine Museum is located on the top floor of the Company Store where you buy your tickets. You can either take the stairs or the elevator to the 2^nd floor. There have several displays that show the tools they used in the mines, and how they spent their few workfree hours. There are also a few features of different notable individual miners. This is a great place to learn about the lives of the miners and their families in the coal camps.

Coal Mine Tour

The Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine Tour is the main highlight of this attraction. The cart tour will last around 35 minutes depending on guest interactions and questions during the ride. You may want to bring a light jacket or sweatshirt for the tour because the mine typically stays around 58 degrees.  

Once you are seated inside the cart and go over the basic safety rules (stay seated and always keep your arms in!) you will start heading into the mine. Your guide will stop the cart at different spots to explain the different mining methods and types of equipment miners used. Each stop has a display or equipment set up to help you visualize what working in the mine was like.

This coal mine tour is different from others because you get to ride a cart into a real coal mine led by an actual veteran coal miner. This means that you will get to hear real-life stories and firsthand personal experiences while learning all about the history of coal mining. Our guide did a great job educating us on the day-to-day lives of coal miners and we would have loved to spend more time on the tour with him.

Tips: This tour may be a little difficult for small children to sit through so you may want to consider letting them skip the tour if they have short attention spans.

Tip: Try to sit towards the front of the cart as it can be difficult to hear the guide if the other guests are talking.

Coal Camp Exhibits

Just past the carts for the coal mine tours, a path will lead to several different restored buildings from the coal camp. The path does split giving you a choice between turning left or right. If you go to the left, you will pass by the short path to the Miner’s Shanty, allowing you to see how single miners lived.

Continue to travel down the main path in that direction to visit the Superintendent’s house and see the gigantic difference in living situations by status. Inside this house, you can see rooms set up to showcase how the coal families of Superintendent’s lived. There are also rooms set up to look like a barbershop or other offices that would have been needed in the camp.

The last building you will encounter before you will have to turn around is the schoolhouse.

 If you choose to go right at the original split in the path when you start, you will be able to see a miner’s family house and the church. Continuing past the church will take you to the Youth Museum and Mountain Homestead.  

Tip: When you reach the fork in the path, head to the left so you don’t have to backtrack too much to see all the buildings.

Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia

The Youth Museum is a smaller building that currently houses a Thomas the Train exhibit where kids can play at different interactive stations inside. This area is perfect for small children to play and get some of their energy out. If you are too old for Thomas the Train, don’t worry, there is something for you too! They have a room full of brain teasers waiting for you to solve. It took four of us adults over an hour to be able to solve each puzzle! There is another small gift shop along with bathrooms inside.

Mountain Homestead

Behind the Youth Museum are several buildings that make up the Mountain Homestead area. Take a trip back to the late 1800s and early 1900s while you visit this mountain settlement. They have interpretive guides on the property to explain how people use to live and they are full of some amazing facts. The one that stood out to us the most was that the people in the settlement used to use wet corn cobs as toilet paper!

In the log house, you can test out several toys that children used to play with. You can also visit a general store, a one-room schoolhouse, and a weaver’s shed. The guides do a great job bringing it all to life!

Nearby Attractions

West Virginia is an outdoor lover’s dream! Just a short drive away you can find countless parks such as Babcock State Park, New River Gorge National Park, and Monongahela National Forest. If you are looking for something more daring than hiking in the mountains or even rock climbing, I cannot recommend white water rafting with New & Gauley River Adventures enough for a wonderful and safe adrenaline rush.

Why You Should Visit:

If you love learning about the history and culture of different states in the U.S, you should visit Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. Take a cart tour into a mine with an ex-miner to hear firsthand what it took to be a coal miner and to live in the coal camps. Explore several restored buildings from a coal camp and then head next door to the Youth Museum and have some fun solving mind puzzles or playing with your kids with Thomas the Train. You can even learn about mountain settlers in the Mountain Homestead section behind the Youth Museum. This is a great spot to learn more about why West Virginians are so resilient and self-sufficient today.

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