Number Four Portal

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Number Four Portal

The principal mine entrance of the Carraway valley and the reason Mill Hollow existed.

Number Four Portal was the main working entrance for the Appalachian Energy & Mine Commission’s coal extraction operations in the Carraway Gorge valley. The portal was cut into the gorge wall in 1914, two years after Mill Hollow was founded, and for decades afterward the mine and the town were inseparable: the mine provided the work, the town provided the labor, and the Commission administered both.

The portal gave access to the deeper seam workings through the Mine Tunnel Network, a linked system of shafts and passages that extended under the gorge floor and eventually into the rock beneath Carraway Dam.

Operations

At its height Number Four employed the majority of Mill Hollow’s adult male population. The Commission recorded multiple serious incidents over the mine’s operational life. The most significant prompted the establishment of a widows’ relief fund, one of the AEMC’s most publicly noted charitable acts. The official incident reports for each event were authored by Commission personnel.

As the accessible seams played out through the 1950s and 1960s, the Commission reduced shift operations progressively. Number Four formally ceased coal extraction in 1971 and was sealed the following year under the Commission’s safety authority.

Current Status

The portal is sealed. The seal is not original to the 1972 closure.

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