1898 Map of Oceana

About this map

Oceana serves as a central point in this late nineteenth-century study of the southern West Virginia coalfields, situated at a time when the region's complex topography was primarily defined by its dense drainage networks and high ridges. The landscape is dominated by the massive presence of Cherry Pond Mountain and Guyandot Mountain, which dictated the early settlement patterns along the narrow valley floors. Transportation was just beginning to modernize, as evidenced by the Norfolk and Western RR cutting through the southwestern corner near Wharncliffe. Small communities like Baileysville, North Spring, and Gilbert appear connected by the many forks and branches of the river systems, including the numerous drainages of Big Creek and Marsh Fork. This survey, directed by Charles D. Walcott, captures the area before the intensive industrial expansion of the twentieth century, focusing on the fundamental geography of the county lines and high knobs like Backbone Knob and Panther Knob.