1954 Map of Hellier

About this map

Hellier and the winding course of Marrowbone Creek define this mid-century portrait of Pike County's coal country. The landscape is a complex network of narrow hollows and steep ridges, where industry and community are tightly packed along the creek beds. The extraction economy of the 1950s is evident in the presence of the Allegheny Mine, scattered Strip Mine operations, and the historic Coke Ovens near Edgewater. Transportation is dominated by the Chesapeake And Ohio railroad, which snakes through the valleys to serve the mining settlements of Wolfpit, Draffin, and Lookout. Rural life is centered around a dense concentration of local institutions, including the High Sch at Hellier and several neighborhood schools like the Jackson Br Sch and Upper Greasy Sch. Dozens of family burial grounds, often labeled simply as Cems, dot the hillsides above the residential clusters, while the Pine Mountain boundary marks the southern edge of the survey area.