Montgomery, WV

Montgomery is a city on the Kanawha River, split between Fayette and Kanawha counties and shaped by coal, railroads, and higher education. The town was incorporated in 1891 after cycling through names including Coal Valley and Cannelton. Its late nineteenth-century growth followed the Kanawha and Michigan Railroad and the Virginian Railway connection at nearby Deepwater; by the early 1910s, Montgomery shipped coal for 26 operations. West Virginia University Institute of Technology called the city home from 1895 until the campus moved to Beckley in 2017, and BridgeValley still maintains a Montgomery campus. The Kanawha sets the city's geography, while the old college and rail landscape keep its working past in view.