Are you fascinated by abandoned structures? If so, West Virginia is definitely the state for you! We’ve got ruins galore, especially ruins that hearken back to the days when coal mining was a booming industry in many parts of the state.

Coalwood High School is like many abandoned buildings around the state of West Virginia: Forlorn. Crumbling. Devoid of the life and energy that once filled its halls when coal was king.
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube
Yet Coalwood High is unlike other abandoned buildings as well, in that it has its own claim to fame. Homer Hickam, NASA engineer and author of the New York Times Bestseller Rocket Boys (alternatively titled October Sky) walked these halls as a schoolboy.
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube
But now, the school that nurtured Hickam's love for rocketry stands vacant and abandoned.
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube
The roof is gone. Many of the walls are missing. Trees grow in rooms that desks once filled. Students from Coalwood are bussed to nearby War, West Virginia instead of attending school in their hometown.
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube

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Youtube user WebsterHighlanders captured some fantastic footage of the inside and birds-eye views of Coalwood High School - fantastic, and yet also eerily mournful.
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube
The video footage captures the vivid reality of the abstract concept of ever-increasing entropy posited by the second law of thermodynamics: all things trend toward disorder.
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube
Still, the massive brick skeleton garners the interest and attention of many who love to learn about and explore abandoned ruins.
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube
Have you ever driven through Coalwood? Have you been inside the high school, either before or after it was abandoned?
WebsterHighlanders/Youtube

Check out this incredible footage from WebsterHighlands's Youtube Channel for yourself:

Now that you’ve seen the town, are you interested in learning more about the boy who put it on the map? Learn more about Homer Hickam, Coalwood’s most famous son, here.

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Coalwood, WV 24828, USA