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Water Foul: 1935

1935. "Miner's house at Scott's Run, West Virginia. Note sewerage system." Photo by Elmer Johnson for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

1935. "Miner's house at Scott's Run, West Virginia. Note sewerage system." Photo by Elmer Johnson for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Electricity

It is not uncommon at all for a company mine town to have electricity. Most large operations would have a boiler house that would produce electric to power electric motors used in the mines.

I am confused

The lower half of the photo seems to be another scene, as if the photo was a meld of two separate shots. Since no one else has mentioned it, what am I seeing wrong?

[The illusion results mainly from the mirror-like reflection in the very still water of the puddle and the shadow area stretching horizontally across the entire frame. Is my guess. - tterrace]

It's all downhill,

in the hollers of West by God Virginia. It's real and so are the wild and wonderful people who live there. I love the ruffled curtains in the windows.

What are poles for?

Do Shorpy-ites think the poles in the background are electric service or telephone lines? Plus, I'm wondering if these grim houses even had electricity, at the time???

My mother's middle-income rural house near Lansing Michigan had no electric service available until REA came in, about this time.

Privy Location

Uphill from one of the shacks, and probably from each of them, unless the residents shared a communal one, sits an outhouse, otherwise known as a place where folks could relieve themselves. Hope water wells were not downhill from them.

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