'The Gaston Gas Coal Company, Gaston Mine Plant. Located one half mile South of Hunsaker Bridge on West Fork River. Owned by James Otis Watson and successor to American Coal Company's mining plant, built in 1852 at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Depot. This mine founded in 1875, closed in 1925. Picture shows 15 drop-bottom railroad cars called 'Hoppers.' These cars average 55 ton coal carrying capacity.'
'Located one half mile south of the Hunsaker Bridge on the West Fork River, which joins the Tygarts Valley River and forms the Monongahela River two miles north of this mining plant. James Otis Watson was the president of this company. This little engine hauled the mine output to Gaston Junction, two miles north, to the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and at the point where the Jones Raid attacked that bridge during the Civil War. Gaston Mine opened at Watson in 1874. This is the fourth rail shipping mine west of the Allegheny Mountains. All of them located in the present city of Fairmont Boundary Lines. James Otis Watson was a Superintendent. Picture taken in 1991. James O. Watson II went to work at this mine in 1885 during school vacation. Mine closed in 1924. (My earliest recollection of this mine was in 1887 when I rode this engine with Wash Wilt the engineer. In 1894 I began working at this plant during school vacations. James O. Watson, II)
