Step Inside The Creepy, Abandoned Town Of Kayford In West Virginia

West Virginia is known for its expansive geographical wonders, but most folks haven't heard of its mysterious ghost towns. Since the state has an intense mining history, there are quite a few spaces and places throughout that have experienced a season of growth and then sudden depletion. There is one place that can even be called the creepiest abandoned town in West Virginia: Kayford, WV.

The tiny and now fairly forgotten coal-mining town of Kayford was once a thriving community, outfitted with a general store, a school, and a church. The miners and their families lived on the mountain for over 200 years, until changes in coal mining led most of the town to disappear. The town revolved around coal mining, but Mountain Top Removal put many of those miners out of work and made the area dangerous. Health hazards, toxic water, and unstable ground have managed to make this an area that few people want to visit.

Don't risk it, folks. We'll show you the wonders of Kayford, West Virginia, and allow you to step inside, right from the comfort of your own computer. Check it out!

Kayford was a coal mining community that has mostly been abandoned, making it one of the scariest places in West Virginia.

Traditional mining of Kayford Mountain has been replaced by Mountain Top Removal, and the town has crumbled. As you can see here, there's really not much left of the once-thriving mountain town.

Now the community has more graves than living people.

Eerie, don't you think? It's an odd experience to walk through a literal ghost town in West Virginia, where the only residents are the dearly departed.

Miners once worked underground in the mountain to retrieve the coal, but now the entire mountain is being scooped away.

Mountain Top Removal requires far fewer people than traditional mining, so there weren't enough jobs to support the town.

When coal dust sits on a mountain exposed to the weather, it can make the surrounding area a toxic place.

Strangely beautiful, but toxic nonetheless. It's beautifully one of the strangest abandoned places in West Virginia.

The exposed coal dust seeps into the streams, turning them brown and making the water unsafe.

No more fishing in these waters, folks. We're so sorry to say that the Mountain State has been tapped out in Kayford.

The dust fills the air when explosions take place, and breathing it increases the risk of cancer.

The dust contains toxic sulfur compounds, which also tend to be dangerous to the human body.

There are several family cemeteries surrounding the MTR site.

It's heartbreaking to see so many folks buried together and forgotten on the mountain. On the bright side, they do have one another in the afterlife.

The blasts from the explosions often send rocks and rubble flying into the cemeteries.

The Stover family cemetery is right on the edge of the MTR site. Although rules require the mining to be 100 feet from the cemetery, the cemetery is not clearly marked, and it's likely that graves have been disturbed.

The blasts also cause the underground mines to settle, creating cracks and unstable ground.

The ways beneath the earth in Kayford are dangerously many...

There's little left now of this former mountain community, but there is one part that remains unchanged.

Curious?

The Stanley family has lived on the mountain for seven generations, and they refuse to ever sell their part of the mountain for any price.

Many of their ancestors are buried in the cemetery above the MTR site. Some still live here on the mountain, and

they've turned part of their land into a public park, where they hold gatherings and remember what the mountain used to be. The abandoned Kayford remains a mystery, forever one of the ghost towns of West Virginia.

It's a beautiful, eerie experience to see the town of Kayford, WV. It's a town that once had the world at its feet, yet now has merely become a memory, one of the best-known abandoned places in West Virginia. Have you been? Would you visit?

If you're looking for another adventure, make sure to check out the remnants of another coal-mining town, check out the abandoned town of Kaymoor.