2023 Map of Trace

About this map

East Fork Twelvepole Creek winds through this section of the West Virginia coalfields, where the borders of Wayne, Lincoln, Logan, and Mingo counties converge. The small settlements of Kirk and Trace anchor a landscape defined by narrow hollows and high ridges like Bryan Ridge and Hoover Knob. Transportation patterns here reflect the transition from industrial utility to rural access, particularly evident in the Old N W Railroad Bed Rd, which traces a historical rail corridor through the creek valley. For genealogists, the map is remarkably dense with family-named landmarks and burial sites, including Mullins-Adams Cem, Thompson Branch Cem, and Meeks Cem. These cemeteries, often tucked into side drainages like Thompson Branch or Smokehouse Fork, provide a critical spatial record of the families who settled this dissected plateau.