Coal Discovered

Boone County · U. S. 119 and W. Va. 3 at Racine · location approximate

John Peter Salley (Salling) and companions discovered coal near here in 1742 on their exploring trip from the Greenbrier River. They followed the Coal River to its junction with the Great Kanawha River at St. Albans.

1937 text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native and Black people, and tells frontier history from the settler's side.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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Marker data: State Road Commission of West Virginia, West Virginia Historic and Scenic Highway Markers (1937), text by Ross B. Johnston

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