Hamlet (historical)

From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia

Hamlet was associated with timbering operations in Raleigh County and was located across New River from the mainline of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), upstream of the mouth of Glade Creek. Remnants of the town in the form of foundations are easily accessible to hikers and boaters, being located in a broad, wooded bottom at the mouth of the creek. As part of the New River Gorge National River, the National Park Service has improved a scenic gravel road from WV-41 to a public campground and stream-access area near the former town site.

By 1897, the Glade Creek & Raleigh Railroad (http://www.newriverwv.com/gallery/glade-creek-and-raleigh) had built a narrow-gauge railroad from Crow to a point on the south side of New River at the mouth of Glade Creek, and in 1898 the line was extended to a then unnamed terminus about 1/2 mile upstream. The railroad's terminus on the banks of New River would later became known as Hamlet, and was located directly opposite Glade Station on the C&O Railway. The railroad was built to haul lumber from a sawmill located at Crow to Hamlet where it was likely ferried across the river and loaded onto C&O freight cars on a siding just downstream the C&O station at Glade.

The sawmill business at Crow was established as the Beaty Lumber Co. by Horace and J. R. Beaty in 1888. Before the narrow gauge railroad was built lumber was transported to the bottom of the gorge via an incline on the edge of the plateau at Grandview. The railroad was incorporated July 18, 1891.

In 1906, the railroad was merged into the Raleigh & Southwestern, a joint operation of the Raleigh Lumber Company and the Blue Jay Lumber Company. That same year the railroad route between Crow and Hamlet was abandoned.

A post office a request to established a post office in Hamlet was filed that suggested Krise, Glade or Hamlet as its name, which resulted the establishment of a post office named Hamlet on May 7, 1914. In 1916, a proposal to change the location of the post office from Hamlet to Glade but nothing was done with the request. Some years later, after the sawmill at Hamlet was closed the post office at Hamlet was also closed. However, that same day, Sept. 1, 1938, a post office was established at Glade.

Rafter's Reference: The remnants of Hamlet are located on river-left, upstream of Grassy Shoals Rapids and the mouth of Glade Creek. The piers that once carried a railway across the river are the most obvious remnants of the town.