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Thurmond
A near-empty railroad town in a river gorge
Thurmond, West Virginia, was a bustling railroad town in the New River Gorge in the coal era of the early 1900s, when steam locomotives stopped to take on water and coal. The shift to diesel ended its purpose, and its population dwindled to single digits. Most of the tiny surviving town is now owned by the National Park Service within New River Gorge National Park, its depot restored as a visitor center.