During the heyday of coal mining in the New River Gorge, Thurmond was a prosperous town with a number of businesses and facilities for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

The C&O passenger railway depot in town was renovated in 1995 and now functions as a Park Service visitor center.

[12] The community remained small until Thomas G McKell of Glen Jean negotiated with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway for a crossing at Dunloup Creek in 1892.

[14] Two hotels were in the town; one was called the Lafayette (known locally as the "Lay-flat"), which was close to the railroad, and the 100-room Dun Glen, which opened in 1901, became a nationally known resort.

The decline continued into the 1950s when locomotives changed from steam to diesel, which could travel much longer distances and did not need to stop for coal and water refilling at Thurmond.

The second decline to hit Thurmond was in the late 1980s, when the National Park Service began purchasing homes and properties, voluntarily, with the promise of turning the Town into a living history museum.

[16] The Thurmond Historic District comprises the entire town and a small portion of the opposite riverbank.

[14] Due to its strategic position on the rail line, the commercial center thrived despite the absence of a road.

The railroad station was built in 1888, while a railyard and shops served the extensive branch line network which carried coal out of the hills.

Thurmond's level land is almost entirely consumed by CSX (formerly the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway) operations.

Apart from a strip of commercial buildings that front directly onto the train tracks with no intervening street, the remainder of the town climbs the hill behind the bottomland.

[20] As of 2024, due to the low annual ridership in Thurmond, the station is unstaffed, there is no waiting room, and no in-person ticket booth or kiosk.

The events took place in Matewan, West Virginia, which borders the Kentucky state line about 100 miles away.