A Dream Fulfilled

The Forks of Coal State Natural Area is home to the Claudia L. Workman Wildlife Education Center, built on a dream for all West Virginians.

This story was originally published in the May 2025 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. To subscribe, visit wonderfulwv.com.

Written by Stan Bumgardner

Photographed by Amy Bumgardner

In 1742, British explorer John Peter Salley—sometimes known as Salling—was canoeing in what would a century later become Boone County, part of England’s efforts to claim the land before France could. He kept noticing plentiful outcroppings of coal. Thanks to Salley’s observations, maps now refer to that river as the Big Coal. Salley, in the middle of utter wilderness, never could have imagined the role those outcroppings would play in our state’s history, economy, culture, and self-identity.

A little farther downriver, near today’s Lincoln–Kanawha county line, a smaller stream forked in from the left. It came to be known as the Little Coal, and the place where the Big and Little Coal rivers meet to form the Coal became known as the Forks of Coal.

Jack Workman

Nearly 250 years after Salley’s trip, a Boone County native and undoubted engineering genius bought a large chunk of the triangular fork of land between the two rivers, located 19 miles upstream from the Coal River’s mouth at St. Albans.

 I had the good pleasure of knowing Jack Workman. He liked my work as creative director for the West Virginia State Museum and wanted me to dig into primary history sources related to the Forks, searching down historical tidbits on his behalf. I was usually following a trail of questions to which he already knew the answers—our form of Jeopardy. I sometimes wondered if he was trying to prove to himself what he thought he knew or teach me something important I should’ve already known. Likely both. Standing in front of his house, built on a promontory at the Forks, Jack would wave his hand across the sky, grin ear to ear, and announce proudly, “I own everything you see, all the way from the Little to the Big Coal.”

Workman wanted to know everything about the region. He was obsessed with the innovative lock-and-dam system built along 34 miles of the Coal in the 1850s that launched pre–West Virginia’s first coal boom. He could recite intricate 19th century construction techniques only an engineer would appreciate—or understand. Of equal interest was a related topic: Boone County’s cannel (from “candle”) coal industry, the whole reason for making the river navigable. He hated how state history books had glossed over both subjects and wanted the world to know about early industry in his native county.

If he’d lived in the 19th century, Workman would’ve been cannel coal’s greatest salesman. Like an old-time street barker, he’d preach its benefits: “You know what rich folks in New York and Philadelphia used to light their homes before cannel coal? Whale oil lamps! Can you imagine what burning whale fat smells like in your living room? It also burned down a lot of houses, and we hunted the whales to near extinction just for their fat. Then, in the 1850s, along comes this coal from a place called Coal River. It was safer to burn and smelled as sweet as nectar.” He’d usually add: “They distilled the coal into oil, just like they made moonshine. That good ol’ West Virginia know-how!” He bemoaned the fact that cannel coal didn’t shine brightly for long. It was overtaken by kerosene, a much safer, less pungent, and cheaper alternative to whale oil and cannel coal, which would be swept into the dustbin of history. Workman wanted that story revived and told far beyond the walls of his kitchen.

Claudia Workman

Claudia, Jack’s beloved wife, was always the first, and often the only, person he’d really listen to. She was his partner in life and business, his girl Friday, his archivist, his scheduler, his translator, and his sole adviser on everything. They met when both were working at Preiser Scientific. Like Jack, Claudia was an engineer—the first woman to earn a chemical engineering degree from the University of Michigan. Jack and Claudia started a business selling their own invention, Minaloy, an abrasion-resistant polyethylene pipe product. It brought in enough for them to afford their dream place at the Forks.

The Workmans shared seemingly all the same interests and were inseparable. Their natural surroundings were the source of their most endearing joy. For much of the 1800s and 1900s, that land had been scarred by industry. The Workmans let it go back to its original form. They would walk or ride around the property daily and imagine what would happen to their West Virginia Shangri-La after they were gone.

Claudia was one of the best nature guides I’ve ever known. She knew the names of every plant and the feeding, mating, and migratory patterns of more species than I knew existed. She treasured nature and wanted to pay something back to the world for being so good to her. So, the two engineers pulled out their scales and protractors and drew up a plan, one so big it didn’t seem feasible—for anyone other than the Workmans.

Wildlife Education Center

Sadly, Claudia died tragically in 2014. The old storytelling lilt in Jack’s voice disappeared, never to return. But through sheer stubborn determination, his final mission in life was to make Claudia’s dream come true. He reached an agreement in which, upon his death, some 300 acres of his land would be bequeathed to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) to become the Forks of Coal State Natural Area. In exchange, the WVDNR would build the Claudia L. Workman Wildlife Education Center on a third of it, right off U.S. 119 (Corridor G) near Alum Creek.

After Jack’s death in 2017, the physical work began. The nonprofit Forks of Coal Foundation obtained an Abandoned Mine Land grant to design, build, and install the center’s indoor exhibits based on the Workmans’ concepts. Outdoors, foundation members blazed trails, created a pollinator field, and installed a chimney swift observation tower. Foundation board member Kevin Hill notes that “Jack wanted the place to be a French Creek on the two Coals,” referring to the West Virginia Wildlife Center. “The foundation is the result of his vision.”

Construction was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the center finally opened on June 4, 2022. The result is an indoor–outdoor education complex with lessons on native wildlife, conservation, game management, forestry, stream restoration, and identification of native plants and animals.

The center features animals in various forms—live, stuffed, and crafted—and all have been indigenous to the Forks at one point or another. A 1,500-gallon freshwater aquarium is home to local fish and amphibians. The stuffed section features an elk, a deer, a beaver, a black bear, and a wild turkey. The exhibits tell how some animals, like the catfish, have been here longer than us, while others, such as the beaver and turkey, have come back from near extinction. The displays are geared toward kids but definitely appeal to all ages.

The center has an indoor hive area with tubing that serves as a bee door to the outside. Pull-out drawers, built at kid’s-eye level, let you touch different animal furs. The most unique experience is the “poop drawer.” Not the real stuff, but casts of different feces, so you don’t have to cringe—too much—when dealing with it. These fascinating tactile exhibits demonstrate the diversity of our wildlife, right down to the poop.

And Jack’s overlooked history lesson is finally proclaimed in two panels: “How Cannel Coal Saved the Whales” and “Mining and Moving Coal ‘Way Back’ When”—including the history and science behind those locks and dams he so admired.

Education Outreach

Arriving here on a nippy February day, the first thing we saw was staff member Brooke Phillips leading a fly-fishing class in the parking lot. The multitalented staff carries out a wide range of duties, but when they’re not conducting classes, they assist the general public and student groups. The center holds nature-related classes about every Saturday year ’round. A state-of-the-art classroom indoors is used to teach a variety of subjects: making pine cone bird feeders and other nature-related crafts, protecting the bat population, and restoring elk to the Mountain State, to mention a few.

Staff member Kim Smith works here as part of the WVU Extension Service. She says the center hosts field trips from schools in all surrounding counties. “We can accommodate as many as 75 kids on any one trip,” Smith says. “We typically split them into three groups so nobody has to wait too long to see or do something.”

The center extends outside, with interpretive signs, exhibits, and a natural amphitheater for live presentations, such as how forestry experts conduct controlled burns. Three miles of trails with various loops are great for birding, nature watching, or letting your dog take you for a stroll. A stunning, if steep at times, trail leads to the actual Forks. You can also see Roof Rock, the site of Kanawha County’s first Girl Scout camp, where an old water pump still remains, or discover an old punch mine a family once used for coal.

Thanks to the efforts of Jack and Claudia Workman, the WVDNR, the Forks of Coal Foundation, and many volunteers, all of this is free to the public—a dream fulfilled for the Workmans and a magnanimous gift to all West Virginians.