Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Amonate Amonate, VA

Amonate is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Tazewell County, in the Appalachian coalfields of southwestern Virginia.

Amonate was first listed as a census-designated place in the 2020 census, which counted a population of 59 in the roughly 0.3-square-mile community.

The community began in the early 1920s as "Faraday," a new coal camp laid out by the Faraday Coal & Coke company straddling the Virginia–West Virginia state line.

In 1923 the camp was purchased by the Pocahontas Fuel Company and renamed Amonate, a name that comes from a nickname for Pocahontas.

Amonate became a company town of Pocahontas Fuel, which operated mines in Virginia at Amonate and Boissevain and in West Virginia at Jenkinjones, Bishop, and Itmann.

Amonate sits in the Pocahontas Coalfield, whose Pocahontas No. 3, No. 4, No. 6, and No. 11 coal seams are rated at about 15,000 Btu per pound and rank among the finest coals in the world.

Pocahontas Fuel was acquired by the Consolidation Coal Company in 1956, and its successor, Consol Energy, has continued to mine coal at Amonate.

The village lies about 8.5 miles northwest of Tazewell, the county seat, and its ZIP code is 24601.

Virginia Tech's community design researchers, working with the local group Amonate Always, Inc., documented the settlement in "Amonate: A Coal Camp Through Time," an inventory aimed at preserving one of Virginia's surviving coal-camp communities.