West Virginia Coal Festival President Joy Underwood told CVN Monday that the 2007 festival was “successful way beyond what we projected.” He said the each of the five nights was more successful than the one before, and believes the good weather helped.

“ We had hardly any rain, and that was a help,” Underwood said. He related a conversation with one of the carnival management officials who said this was the most successful fair or festival he had been to this summer. “The guy told me ‘you can’t get any better than this.”

He said the first nights attendance was estimated at 5,000, and it went up from there. “We had the best gospel music night I’ve ever seen, and on Friday and Saturday nights the crowds were packed all the way up to the Boone County Bank parking lot.”

During the festival, visitors came from many states including California, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, and of course, West Virginia.

Underwood admitted one major glitch in preparation for the event. That was, parking. Where does one park the cars of an estimated 5,000 people per night? The limited number of spaces near the courthouse, on Main Street and in the Municipal parking lots was quite insufficient for the crowds, according to the official.

“We’ve tried a lot of things, but possibly next year, shuttling people from the Scott High School parking lot might be the way to go,” he said.

In addition to the success of the festival, the foundation received the 2007 Coal Heritage Interpretation Award from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority. The award was announced June 2 at the annual National Coal Heritage Area Achievement Awards event at the Earl Ray Tomblin Conference Center at Chief Logan State Park. The foundation operates the Coal Heritage Museum in downtown Madison.

The museum had a modest beginning in a storefront on Main Street. Starting with a few artifacts, the museum has developed into a permanent facility that displays professionally designed exhibits and hosts traveling displays from other states. Staffed entirely by volunteers, the museum is open Tuesday through Friday from noon through 4:00 p.m. Recently, it was featured in the West Virginia Association of Museums newsletter and was recognized as “an example for other museums to follow.”

“There are many people who made this possible and need to be recognized for this award as well as the museum’s overall success,” said Larry Lodato, secretary treasurer of the foundation. “We take pride in what’s been accomplished in the past six years. The other two officers of the Foundation, Underwood, and Vice President Delores Cook played key roles in getting the museum started and for carrying out the mission of the museum.”

The Coal Museum opened in its permanent home in 1999. Thanks to a state grant that former House of Delegates member Delores Cook helped secure; the Foundation purchased the building adjacent to the museum. The building, which houses the museum, was then donated to the Foundation by the late Tommy and Mary Frances Ellis.

“Once we had a building, the people of the community, such as R.B. Foster, Steve Stewart, Bob Plants, Tony Ball, Bill White and Fred Duty, started brining in items and we received a grant to construct cases to hold everything,” Lodato recalled. “All the exhibits are safe and insured.’

Over the past six years, the Foundation has added many new exhibits, such as the Miners Life Exhibit that features a company store, miner’s home and a coalmine, featuring ‘hands on’ tools for youngsters to participate. This interpretative exhibit paved the way for the 2007 National Coal Heritage award.

In the past 12 months, other improvements were made at the museum, such as new lights, exterior siding and awnings.

“We have received two large grants from the National Coal Heritage Area, which we would not have received if it weren’t for matching money provided by the Boone County Commission,” Lodato said. “We are fortunate enough to have Commissioners Gordon Eversole, Mickey Brown and Atholl Halstead in office. They are very supportive of our efforts to preserve our coal heritage.”