Who hires here, what it pays, and the trail bet

The job count, March 2026

Coal still sets the pay scale. In the first quarter of 2026 the county had 5,462 jobs paying an average of $1,182 a week. Mining and natural resources had 1,012 of them at an average of $1,930 a week, about $100,000 a year, but that was a quarter fewer than a year before. Private health care, with 687 jobs at $1,342 a week, and local government, with 1,034 jobs at $850 a week, were the only big groups that grew. At the bottom of the scale, retail averaged $585 a week and leisure and hospitality, 215 jobs, averaged $383[135]. For all of 2025 the county averaged 5,696 jobs, down 5.9%; coal mining alone averaged 1,025 jobs at $2,061 a week, and manufacturing 249 jobs at $1,658[136]. These are averages that include part-time workers, so the low-end figures partly reflect short hours, not just low hourly pay.

The biggest employers. The state's latest list (third quarter of 2024) puts Buchanan Minerals first, then the School Board, Keen Mountain Correctional Center, Rapoca Energy, Walmart, the county government, Buchanan General Hospital, Clintwood JOD, Food City and the Virginia Employment Commission. Jewell Coke, the law school, Paul's Fan and West River Machinery also make the top 30. No employer here has 1,000 workers, and only a handful of new businesses start each quarter; six did in that quarter[137]. The same profile's commuting data, which dates to 2014, showed more residents driving out to work (4,528) than workers driving in (3,854), with Tazewell County the top destination[137].

Why mining fell so hard. Clintwood JOD, eighth on that list, laid off about 300 workers in March 2026, then sold nearly all its assets in Chapter 11 to CW Reclaim LLC of Cleveland, Ohio, for about $1.1 million. More Buchanan layoffs followed in August, number undisclosed. Court records show it owed more than $60 million, including millions in unpaid coal severance taxes[138], the same tax that feeds the shrinking Coal Road Fund covered in the sixth edition. A year earlier, in April 2025, Coronado laid off about 140 of roughly 600 workers at its Buchanan operation, three years after a $3.5 million state grant tied to 181 new jobs[139]. Unemployment has eased since a summer peak, from 7.9% in July to 6.5% in September[132], but partly because people stopped looking: the labor force shrank from 5,889 in March to about 5,700 in August[133]. Neighboring Dickenson and Lee were at 4.8%[134].

The small bright spot in manufacturing. West River Conveyors and Machinery is building a 65,000-square-foot plant with a $4 million VCEDA loan, promising 25 new jobs over 15 years[149]. Mine-equipment makers like it and Paul's Fan are the closest thing the county has to factory jobs that pay near mining wages, but they sell to the same coal industry, so they rise and fall with it.

The trail bet

Spearhead Trails runs more than 400 miles of permitted ATV, dirt bike and horse trails across seven systems in Southwest Virginia. Two are in Buchanan: Coal Canyon, 127 miles out of Grundy with its trailhead at Southern Gap, and Ridgeview, 78 miles near Breaks Interstate Park[141][142]. As of Oct. 24, one Coal Canyon trail was closed for local construction and another was posted as slick[143]. In December 2025 Breaks Interstate Park bought Southern Gap Outdoor Adventure, the campground built on a reclaimed mine site, with money from the Anne and Gene Worrell Foundation. The deal included 35 acres, five cabins and 33 RV sites, and the park reached terms with the county IDA for the visitor center and trailhead. The founders estimate about 240,000 visits since 2017, and the park's superintendent says the purchase can push the park's yearly visits "well beyond 300,000"[146][147]. Elk Fest filled the site Oct. 22-24, opening with a wild game dinner for nearly 200 people[148].

What tourism adds up to so far. State-commissioned estimates say visitors spent $12.2 million in Buchanan in 2025, supporting 145 jobs and $3.8 million in labor income, and paying $327,000 in state and $488,000 in local taxes. That spending has barely moved in a decade, from $11.6 million in 2016, which means it shrank once you account for inflation. Neighbors did better: Tazewell rose 37% since 2019 to $60.3 million, and Wise rose 16% to $65.4 million. Dickenson is flat at $12.6 million[140]. The trail system's own impact studies are older. The last public one, for fiscal 2018-19, estimated $18.8 million in total economic activity and about 198 full-time-equivalent jobs across the whole region, up from $9 million and 94 jobs two years earlier, with $9.7 million counted as fresh money from riders who came 50 miles or more[144][145].