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Coal River Group initiatives

Over the years, the Coal River Group applied for and received more than $30 million worth of stream restoration grants. Among other things, the grant money was used to strategically install log and boulder stream structures that permanently flush silt out of river channels and restore habitat for fish and other forms of aquatic life and pay for ongoing water quality monitoring.

The organization also coordinated dozens of volunteer-powered cleanup sweeps, which removed thousands of scrap tires and hundreds of tons of trash from the Coal, Big Coal and Little Coal rivers.

To let more people in on the fact that the Coal River system is great for paddling, the CRG organized its annual Tour de Coal 11-mile group float down the Coal River from Tornado to St. Albans.

The tour, now in its 22nd year, drew 2,500 kayakers and canoeists last year, and has arguably become the world’s biggest flatwater paddling event.

After promoting the fact that the river was being restored to good health, had good fishing opportunities and an abundance of scenic paddling routes, the Coal River Group led the effort to build 20 public stream access sites along the river system and mapped out a water trail connecting them.

To preserve and draw attention to the Coal River’s commercial history, the CRG placed historic markers and signage at the remnants of all nine of the river’s former lock sites, used by barges and steamboats to haul cannel coal from upstream coalfields to downriver markets prior to the Civil War.

Today, more than 15,000 paddlers, most of them kayakers, ply the waters of the Coal River system annually.

How the CRG began

The CRG traces its roots to a fishing trip Currey and fellow St. Albans residents and founding members of the organization, Bill Queen and Craig Skaggs, took in 1972.

“Bill said he’d been studying the Coal River and thought it might be a good fishing stream, although St. Albans people hadn’t floated it much,� Currey recalled. “We borrowed someone’s unused canoe and Bill made some paddles out of PVC pipe attached to plywood blades so we could steer it, and, after I plugged a leak with a stick, we took off and started fishing.�

The fishing turned out to be surprisingly good. Currey, Queen and Skaggs began expanding their paddling range — and improving their watercraft — until they fished and paddled all 88 miles of Coal River system. Along the way, they discovered stretches of unspoiled forest and remote canyons, along with miles of sediment-clogged river channels, scores of open residential sewer lines and vast accumulations of trash and tires.

“We were also surprised by how many towns along the river had no public river access,� Currey said.

One night in 1974, the three men were discussing the river at a St. Albans bar, when Skaggs brought up the idea of forming a nonprofit to begin cleaning up and promoting the Coal River system.

“We did the paperwork to set up a 501(c)(3), bought a raft from a whitewater company to help us let more people see the Coal River like we saw it, started the first Tour de Coal, and began recruiting volunteers to go out and clean up the river,� Currey said. “Then, we went to the DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] and asked them what we needed to do to fix the sediment and sewage problems�

In the years since then, “what we’ve done, through politicking, publicity, hard work and dedicated volunteers, is to create a really good place for people to have river adventures,� said Currey, who, earlier in his life, worked as a spokesman and lobbyist for a Kanawha Valley chemical plant.

“The work on keeping the Coal River clean and healthy will go on,� Currey said, “but I think our future is based on being a service provider for tourism.�

That transition could be the jumping-off point for Currey’s decades-long affiliation with the CRG.

“I’m 80 years old,� he said. “I’m trying to retire.�

‘No-man’s land of tourism promotion’

While that work has helped spawn several kayak rental shops, bait shops, campgrounds, rental cabins and other businesses along the Coal River system, the 900-square-mile watershed “lies in kind of a no-man’s land of tourism promotion,� he said. “We want to help change that. We want to grow business opportunities.�

To that end, the CRG is developing a Coal River Country driving tour and a Coal River Country Adventures guide, featuring river and trail opportunities and outfitters throughout the watershed.

Thousands of copies of a “Lincoln County Outdoor Adventures in the Coal River Country� brochure and map, listing points of interest, campgrounds, cabins and outfitters, have been printed and are ready for distribution.

Tourism-related businesses in the Coal River watershed will be able to promote their offerings for free on the Coal River Group’s six affiliated social media pages, which attract more than 50,000 outdoor-oriented viewers annually, Currey said.

The CRG’s headquarters is located along the Coal River’s Upper Falls at Tornado, in a 2-acre parcel leased from 100-acre Meadowood Park. Now open and staffed seven days a week, the headquarters building features a small museum, gift shop, kayak rentals and a trail pass venue for the Hatfield-McCoy Trails’ new, 35-mile Tornado Single Trax trail system for motorcycles and e-bikes

“It’s the ideal location for a convention and visitors’ bureau for the area,� Currey said. “Coal River Country is a beautiful area that’s got some sights to see, some scenic roads to drive and some unique places to stay. When it comes to developing tourism here, there’s light at the end of the tunnel — and it’s not a train.�