Sunday - Day 2
On Saturday morning we headed south via a circuatis route - our final destination would be Marlinton WV.
We passed through the town of Luke MD, home of the New Page paper mill. The plant is known far and wide for the stench it produces.
Right next door to the paper mill is this charcoal plant. The industrial footprint these two factories make on the valley and surrounding area is significant.
A short while later we started seeing signs for Jennings Randolph Lake near Elk Garden and decided to stop. My buddy Mike had told me about the weird waffle rock on display there so we decided to have a look-see.
Corps of Engineers geologists and those of other agencies have concluded that it is a natural geological formation. Although such formations are not common, similar patterned boulders were found on the east side of Tea Creek Mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Dr. Jack B. Epstein of the Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the interior, explained that the waffle rock is part of the Conemaugh geologic series that was deposited about 300 million years ago during the Pennsylvanian period. It is surmised that the waffle rock is a large loose boulder that fell from a parent outcrop somewhere higher up the slope, many decades ago, before the present trees grew.
This is Saddle Mountain as seen from the intersection of Rt 42 and US 50.
We finally wound our way to "Poci" as my family used to call it.
"Pocahontas County is fortunate to have more parks and forests than any other county in West Virginia. Over sixty-percent of our 900 square miles is protected state parks or federal forest land. These treasures are a tribute to the preservation of our vast natural resources.
Pocahontas County, like so many rural regions in the country, has its own distinct and novel history. Land is rich, forests are thick and waters are abundant and clean.
Watoga State Park, the states largest, was once a favored hunting ground of many Indian tribes. Beartown is the name given by early settlers to the State Park that dates back to the Pennsylvanian Age.
The oldest of West Virginia’s state forests derives its name from the Seneca tribe of Indians who patrolled a vital trail through the Alleghenies. Today, at Seneca State Forest, visitors can still enjoy its rustic pioneer cabins.
More than one-third of the Monongahela National Forest lies within Pocahontas County, about 310,000 acres.
“Monongahela” reportedly came from one of several interpretations or spellings of one or more American Indian words. The forest was established following passage of the 1911 Weeks Act. This act authorized the purchase of land for long-term watershed protection and natural resource management.
In 1915, 7,200 acres were acquired to begin the forest, called the Monongahela Purchase, and on April 28, 1920 it became the Monongahela National Forest. Today the forest is over 919,000 acres in federal ownership in 10 West Virginia counties, making it the fourth largest National Forest in 20 northeastern states.
Pocahontas County is also the Birthplace of Rivers, as eight rivers have their headwaters here. These are the Cherry, Cranberry, Elk, Gauley, Greenbrier, Tygart, Williams, and the Shaver Fork of the Cheat."
Source: Pocahontas County Convention & Visitors Bureau
We dropped down into Bartow. Shown here is what is left of the Bartow Drive-In. It was here my brother William and I went to see the movie "Joe Hill". This was back around 1972. It is now the site of a community recycling center.
Also located at the crossroads in Bartow is the Hermitage Motel - now closed after over 40 years of being in business. There are plans to reopen it in "early August".
Betsy and I stayed here one weekend. That came about by mentioning to my dad we were going away to the mountains to celebrate our Anniversary. He offered us a stay at the Hermitage as an Anniversary gift, which we gladly accepted.
After checking in at the front desk we went to our room. Upon opening the door we noticed a piece of paper with writing on it laying on the pillow. It read: "George Breiding slept here". What hoot. I may even have that note somewhere.
We left Bartow and headed south towards Green Bank where I and some of my family made an attempt to join the back to the land movement started in the 60's. This did not work out and the we all went our separate ways.
Depicted above is a small vacation cabin that was there in the early 70's and remains unchanged. It is on Sheets Road just down the hill from the farm house we lived in back then. It seemed a good place for lunch so we had some cheese, crackers and beer on the back porch.
Here is the farm house we stayed in while trying to figure out how to make our "back to the land" dreams come true. It was owned by Hunter Grimes and previously Everett Sheets.
Hunter used to run sheep on it, but now the house sits in the middle of a cow pasture. When we lived here there was a huge White Oak tree just down from the barn. It shaded a spring that supplied water to the house. Also gone is the corn crib which was next to the grainery.
This is Phillip and Virginia Sheets, our neighbors when we lived there. Phillip and Everett were brothers.
Both Phillip and Virginia were hard working, salt-of-the-earth farmers at the time we lived there. As you can ( barely) see here Phillip is now missing one leg and is in a wheel chair. Virginia is failing as she suffered a head injury when she fell coming out of the chicken coop just three years ago.
Phillip is still mentally sharp and he amazed me by telling detailed stories about things that happened when we lived there over 30 years ago. I barely remembered the incidents myself.
Phillip and Virginia kept sheep, hogs and dairy cows. And of course they had a big garden. Virginia milked the cows and jarred it up for local sales. She would deliver it to your door for $1 a gallon. It was not homogenized so all the cream would come to the top. My mom used to spoon this off and save it to have with her coffee. Virginia told us one Winter she had to use the farm tractor to make her deliveries as the snow was too deep to get the 4 wheel drive IH truck out of the driveway. The tractor had and open cab.
I remember one time, shortly after we had moved into the farmhouse seeing an unfamiliar pick-up truck come down our drive. It pulled up near the house and my brother William and an older, barrel chested man got out from behind the wheel. It was Phillip Sheets. It seems one of the two had seen the other and when my brother told him we had moved into the Grimes place and were sleeping on the floor, Phillip and Virginia gathered up every spare frame and mattress they had. The were then loaded into the back of Phillip's truck and then he and my brother brought them over to our place. I can just image when Phillip and Virginia heard we were sleeping on the floor they thought, "Well, we can't have that!". I am sure they thought it quite uncivilized.
This is the house of Phillip and Virginia.
The old shed to the left where Virginia used to do her milking.
Something you always see at old farms - the tools and machinery of by-gone days.
We left Phillip and Virginia's and arrived in Marlinton late afternoon. We had arranged to stay at the Old Clark Inn. It was not long before Betsy was relaxed and working on her Journal.