"In the years when I was on Coal River and paying any attention, 1942 through 1967, Pettry Bottom was mainly notable to me for the big sawmill, sawdust pile, and for the big swimming and fishing hole that was behind the sawmill. When I began to drive, I noticed that just up from the sawmill, there was one of the sharpest curves on Coal River. And just beyond that curve, some big rock cliffs that threatened to drop boulders down on the road. If you look a little more closely at one of those boulders, you can see that a local wit has painted on one of them his trademark slogan: "His Ass."

Across the wooden bridge just above and over from the curve, there is now a good-sized community with its own church. Up the hill and back into the mountains, that "massive energy company" is busily turning mountains into molehills. ." by Charles Bradford.

Church at Pettry Bottom


Coal River from Pettry Bottom Bridge


Dangerous Rocks on Rt 3 by Pettry Bottom Bridge