West Virginia Trip Post #8: Homer Hickman House

On our third full day in West Virginia we took a drive through parts of West Virginia that took us through Coalwood, WV, the boyhood home of Homer Hickman.  Homer Hickman authored the book 'Rocket Boys' from which the movie October Sky was based on.  As with many old coal towns in West Virginia, there's not much left in Coalwood.  The Homer Hickman boyhood home is still there, owned and lived in by someone else.

We also took a look at a few of the old buildings owned by the coal mining company, all of which are now in disrepair.

The picture above with all of the broken windows is the building in which Hickman used machinery owned by the coal company to build the rockets. 

Coalwood, WV was a very interesting stop given the history behind it, but yet very depressing given that there is not much left of this town.  Many abandoned buildings in disrepair.