Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Holden, WV

Holden is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in western Logan County, West Virginia, in the valley of Copperas Mine Fork, a tributary of Island Creek in the Guyandotte River watershed.

Holden was built between 1902 and 1915 as a model mining company town by mining engineer Albert F. "Bert" Holden, with its buildings constructed from local materials, including stone from a nearby quarry, and its own band mill and brick-making plant.

By 1909 some 400 buildings stood in the settlement, including houses, stores, barns, a machine shop, a carpenter shop, a blacksmith shop, and a power plant, centered on the area known as Main Holden.

A mining engineer writing in 1907 praised Holden's houses, all provided with electric lights, porches, and water from driven wells, calling it the most orderly and wisely planned community in West Virginia.

The CDP takes in the unincorporated communities of Holden, Beebe, Frogtown, Sycamore, Diamond, and Davis, all strung along Copperas Mine Fork.

The population was 783 at the 2020 census, down from 876 at the 2010 census and 1,105 at the 2000 census.

At the 2000 census, Holden had 436 households and 488 housing units.

Holden lies about 4 miles southwest of Logan, the county seat, just west of the four-lane U.S. Route 119 freeway, which runs north to Charleston and southwest to Pikeville, Kentucky.

The CDP covers about 3.7 square miles, all land, at an elevation of about 735 feet, and is served by ZIP code 25625.

Major league baseball pitcher Max Butcher, who pitched in the 1930s and 1940s, was born in Holden.