Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Murray City, OH

Murray City is a village in Ward Township, Hocking County, Ohio, in the heart of the Hocking Valley coalfields of Appalachian Ohio.

The town was platted in 1873 and incorporated in 1891, taking its name from landowner John Murray Brown, who built a hotel in the area in 1875.

Murray City grew rapidly into one of the largest coal towns in the Hocking Valley, exceeding 2,000 residents at its early-20th-century peak, with a hotel, saloons, churches, a train depot and dozens of businesses.

The Sunday Creek Coal Company's Mine No. 5 ran directly beneath the village, and Murray City was regarded as a coal-mining union stronghold and a trading hub for the surrounding hollows.

Coal production slowed in the 1930s, and after major mine closures in 1937 the village entered a steep decline, falling to 449 residents in 2010 and 341 at the 2020 census.

Murray City's 449 residents at the 2010 census lived in about 175 households within a compact 0.3 square miles along State Routes 78 and 216.

The village still honors its mining roots at the annual Murray City Miners Festival, whose parade, queen pageant and fireworks display are described as the biggest event of the village's year.

Local students attend schools in the Nelsonville-York City School District.