ELKVIEW, W.Va. -- When Go-Mart opens its newest gas station Saturday at the Elkview exit of Interstate 79, it will be an historic event for the family-owned company. The Elkview station will be Go-Mart's 100th outlet, according to the Charleston Daily Mail.
The company will celebrate the opening from Saturday through October 6 with giveaways and special events.
The Elkview station will feature 12 pumps with 24 positions.
Go-Mart traces its history to 1914, when brothers Fred, Charles and Rod [image-nocss] Heater, operating as the Heater Oil Co., began peddling axle grease, kerosene and other petroleum products to farms and businesses in central West Virginia using flat-bottomed boats on the Little Kanawha River.
By the early 1920s, the Heater brothers were operating bulk plants along the railroad lines in Clarksburg, Weston, Burnsville, Cowan, Richwood and Gassaway, according to a company history.
Following the Great Depression and the death of Charles Heater, Fred Heater decided to centralize the business in Gassaway, W.Va., where it is based today. In the early 1960s, Fred Heater's health was failing and he sold the business to his sons, John, William and James.
When self-service gasoline pumps were legalized in West Virginia in 1970, the Heaters built the state's first self-service gas station in Shinnston, and called it "Go-Tron." Six months later, they rebuilt their Gassaway store into their first convenience food and gas store and manager Karen Sattler named it "Go-Mart."
By 1977, Go-Mart had 16 stores. The company now operates stores in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia and river terminals near St. Albans and at St. Marys. It has about 1,200 employees and is West Virginia's 41st largest private employer.
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