Not Your Typical Retirement
By Heidi Schmalbach
Joy and Chuck Lynn retired to Fayette County in May 2006, spending their individual 401k retirement savings on a dilapidated coal company store in Whipple, West Virginia. Over $300,000 later, The Appalachian Heritage Education Museum in the Whipple Company Store officially opened its doors on May 1, 2008.
Joy Lynn was born in Fayette County and lived in the area before moving to Michigan for high school. Her father and grandfather both worked for mining companies, and she remembers the first time she saw the Whipple building.
“I was five years old,” she says. “I’ve known I wanted to own it ever since.”
The building had been vacant since 2003 and was in danger of being destroyed.
At first devastated by the building’s condition, the Lynns’ excitement grew as renovations on the 118-year-old structure got underway. Original artifacts, photographs, and records of the store’s history were found in the basement, in the safe, and even in the walls.
“It’s like a treasure hunt,” Joy says. “I uncover bits of history and piece them back together.”
Locals with ties to the store have helped the Lynns preserve traditions and stories of West Virginia coal miners, and to educate future generations about their history. Books of photographs around the store are marked with post it notes written by guests who have identified family members. Daily tours and events have brought over 750 people through the store since it opened in May.
Children visiting the Whipple Company Store can dig in a replica mine the Lynns have created in the basement. The Lynns provide a hat, bucket, and plastic spoon to the “miners,” and send them down a coal elevator. Why a plastic spoon? Joy says a shovel makes the job too easy. She wants them to get some sense of what mining was like in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
“We want kids to understand that mining was not just a job. Mines were dark, dangerous, and uncomfortable, and I want to simulate that in the safest way possible.”
The “miners” are issued scrip, the mining industry’s form of cash, from the original cash register, and can purchase items from the store.
In the next year, the Lynns plan to expand educational programming as well as build a portable stage for Appalachian music and entertainment. In the long run, they want to continue to organize historical documents in the store and make them available for genealogical research.
Despite the sacrifices, the Lynns are proud of their investment.
“A 401k is great, if you live long enough to enjoy it,” Joy Lynn said, “but I am from West Virginia, and this building represents a legacy that is my heritage, and the heritage of many other West Virginians.”
Photo: Joy and Chuck Lynn own the Whipple Company Store in Whipple, W.Va.