Gary, WV

Gary is a city located along the Tug Fork River in McDowell County, West Virginia, United States. The 2020 census counted 762 residents. Gary was named for Elbert Henry Gary, one of the founders of U.S. Steel. The former coal towns of Elbert, Filbert, Thorpe, and Wilcoe became part of Gary at the time of its incorporation in 1971. That mix gives Gary a clear local shape within West Virginia, with older layers still visible in current places. The local scoop is a place whose streets, landmarks, and institutions keep its earlier story close to the present. During the early 1940s, Gary Hollow, named for Elbert Henry Gary, produced around a quarter of the amount of coal mined from McDowell County, as well as a quarter of the coal used by U.S. Gary has a railway station on the Norfolk Southern Railway, known previously as the Norfolk and Western network.