Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Haysi, VA

Haysi is an incorporated town in Dickenson County, Virginia, pronounced 'HAY-sye,' tucked into the Appalachian Mountains of far southwestern Virginia.

The town was incorporated on February 17, 1936, by which time its Main Street was lined with businesses including movie theaters, restaurants, car dealers, a drug store, and a department store.

As of the 2020 census, Haysi had a population of 484.

Haysi stands at the confluence of three waterways — Russell Prater Creek, the McClure River, and the Russell Fork River — and the site was once known as 'Turkey Foot' or 'The Mouth of McClure.'

The name Haysi was coined from the surnames of Charles M. Hayter and Otis L. Sifers, partners in a general store, when the town's post office opened on July 25, 1900, with Winnie W. Scyphers as its first postmaster.

Before the railroad came, Haysi was little more than a laurel bed; its first store was built by Paris Charles for workers of the Yellow Poplar Lumber Company.

Haysi began to grow with the construction of the Clinchfield Railroad between 1912 and 1915, as stores sprang up to serve railroad workers, and the Clinchfield Coal Company later became the town's principal employer.

Early businesses included the McClure Bottling Company, established in 1914, and the Haysi Supply Company, established in 1916, and by 1920 the town had a hotel, a bank, and a hardware store.

Haysi's first public elementary school was established in 1911, a junior high school followed in 1926, and a brick schoolhouse serving both elementary and high school students was built in 1928.

The town's riverside site has repeatedly flooded: the flood of January 29, 1957, put eight feet of water on Main Street, and the 1977 flood put nine feet of water on Main Street and damaged every business and building there.