Vulcan, West Virginia

Vulcan, West Virginia
Unincorporated community
Vulcan, West Virginia Vulcan, West Virginia
Coordinates: 37°33′08″N 82°07′33″W / 37.55222°N 82.12583°WCoordinates: 37°33′08″N 82°07′33″W / 37.55222°N 82.12583°W
Country	United States
State	West Virginia
County	Mingo
Elevation	738 ft (225 m)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP codes	25697
Area code(s)	304 & 681
GNIS feature ID	1555899[1]

Vulcan is an unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia, United States. Vulcan is located along the Tug Fork across from the state of Kentucky.

Vulcan postmark

The community was named after Vulcan, the god of fire in Roman mythology.^[2]

In 1977, John Robinette, acting mayor of Vulcan, requested foreign aid from the Soviet Union and East Germany to replace the town's bridge after unsuccessful efforts to get the state to replace it. The bridge was the sole route to legally enter and exit the town, and it had collapsed two years previously.^[3] Russian journalist Iona Andronov visited Vulcan on December 17, 1977 to meet with Robinette and survey the problem. Within an hour of his visit, reporters were told that the state would replace the bridge. The West Virginia state legislature provided $1.3 million in funding to replace the bridge.^[4][5]

Vulcan in 2014

References

1. "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
2. Kenny, Hamill (1945). West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains. Piedmont, WV: The Place Name Press. p. 652.
3. http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=253642
4. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/22/us/west-virginia-roads-a-bumpy-legacy-lives-on.html?pagewanted=3
5. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19800102&id=0g0wAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sgUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2235,462258