Map of Keystone city, West Virginia

Keystone is a city in McDowell County, West Virginia, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 176. Keystone is one of the few municipalities in West Virginia with an African-American majority, with 65 percent of the residents being black.

The term “Free State of McDowell” was coined by Matthew Thomas Whittico, a local newspaper editor and community leader from Keystone in the early 20th century. Keystone possessed a unique combination of political, social, and economic characteristics that made it an attractive place for African-Americans to migrate to in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Keystone city overview:
Name:	Keystone city
LSAD Code:	25
LSAD Description:	city (suffix)
State:	West Virginia
County:	McDowell County
Elevation:	1,631 ft (497 m)
Total Area:	0.32 sq mi (0.84 km²)
Land Area:	0.32 sq mi (0.84 km²)
Water Area:	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km²)
Total Population:	282
Population Density:	688.27/sq mi (265.98/km²)
ZIP code:	24852
Area code:	304
FIPS code:	5443516
GNISfeature ID:	1554871

Online Interactive Map

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Keystone online map. Source: Basemap layers from Google Map, Open Street Map (OSM), Arcgisonline, Wmflabs. Boundary Data from Database of Global Administrative Areas.

Keystone location map. Where is Keystone city?

Keystone location on the U.S. Map. Where is Keystone city. — Keystone location on the U.S. Map.

Keystone location on the West Virginia map. Where is Keystone city. — Location of Keystone in West Virginia.

History

Keystone was founded in 1892 by the Keystone Coal & Coke Company. Keystone was then incorporated in 1909 by the Circuit Court of McDowell County. Its name is derived from the name of the coal and coke company operating at that point. The city was formerly known as Cassville.

On May 1, 1895, 15,000 union miners (predominantly black) assembled in Keystone and armed themselves, planning to march across the state line to Virginia in order to force the Virginia miners in one bordering mine (also predominantly black) to unionize. The governor of Virginia, Charles O’Ferrall ordered an artillery company and six infantry companies to the Va border, but WV Governor William MacCorkle refused repeated requests from O’Ferrall to reciprocate.

This was in response to the N&W Railroad lowering the minimum price guarantee on coal shipped to Tidewater ports. The operators reduced wages by 20% in response and encouraged their miners to strike. By the end of April that year, the mines on the WV side had completely shut down, but a large mine across the state line in Virginia continued to operate.

The strike collapsed by the end of August. The UMWA was a relatively young union, and could not support a strike of this magnitude. In the end, most of the mines resumed operations with mostly imported strikebreakers.