The rugged mountains of western Virginia were settled by hearty souls whose lives were very different from those on the large plantations of eastern Virginia. Transportation was difficult but essential. Improved roads to bring in supplies and to export goods to market were the lifeblood of these frontier communities. The political and logistical difficulties that had to be overcome to build the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike illustrated many of the challenges and difficulties of the mountain life and set the stage for the conflict to come. The story of building the turnpike, and the later roads and railroads in its wake, shows how vital such transportation arteries were to the life and growth of western Virginia.

You are invited to witness the evolution of animal and Indian trails into the region's premier highway linking western Virginia from the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River. Listen to the tales of early transportation, trade, and migration across the Allegheny Mountains in this audio history from the Voices of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike.
  

 

When the American Civil War began, control of the few roads through the Allegheny Mountains of Western Virginia offered vital military advantages to the side that could take them and hold them.

The Baltimore & Ohio railroad was the focal point of the very first armed clashes in the area, while the rivers and roads in the Kanawha Valley to the south also came to be contested early on.

In the center of the region, though, the relatively new Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike formed the very seat of the war. Driven south from the B&O Railroad at Grafton and Philippi, Confederates dug in on the Turnpike and awaited the arrival of Union forces. Northern victory at Rich Mountain forced the Rebels to retreat along the Turnpike to Cheat Summit and Allegheny Mountain, but the Federals could not follow up on their initial successes. Conditions in the mountains soon produced stalemate, as both sides learned that moving through such country was much easier than holding it.

The social divisions, violence, and passions of the era left deep traces among the citizens of the new, war-born state of West Virginia. Echoes of those Civil War times resurface in the music and stories of the mountain people, and are brought to life in this recording, the second volume of Voices of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, life in the new state of West Virginia changed forever.  With the help of a booming railroad system, it became possible to extract the abundant natural resources of the region.  By the end of the 19th Century, timber and coal in astonishing quantities were being exported from West Virginia – together with most of the profit from their sale.   Capitalists of the Gilded Age found it simple to exploit isolated and cash-starved mountain families, and vast tracts of land and mineral rights were purchased for a pittance, to be held by out-of-state interests to the present day.

Political chaos also created problems in the new state. Returning Confederates captured control of the very government they had fought against. The deep pockets of the Robber Barons corrupted political processes across the state, and governmental functions such as schools and roads suffered in consequence.  Although used steadily, the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike was among the many public roads neglected for decades.

By the early days of the 20th Century, a previously agrarian life was transformed, as farmers became loggers, miners, mill hands and railroaders to keep food on the family table.  Dangerous working conditions, inclement weather and the Flu Epidemic of 1918 compounded their hardships.

Stories of those hard times live on in this audio history production, the third of the four-part series Voices of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. Join us as local elders recall with a grim chuckle that: “We’d All Be Millionaires If We Had It Now!”

As the 20^th Century changed the rest of America, the accelerating pace of technology and progress was slow to reach the Appalachian Mountains. Horses and wagons continued to ply the old routes for many years.

Eventually, however, the pressure for motor transport grew irresistible. Too many communities were not served by the railroads, and West Virginians wanted the same opportunities as existed elsewhere. But the fragile early automobiles were no match for the rugged mountain wagon roads, and this set off an epic high­way building and improvement program that continues to the present day.

Despite some neglect, the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike was still one of the best roads directly across the central Allegheny Mountains, and it was one of the first roads to be improved for motor vehicles. In places, modern surveying and construction methods meant that the paved highway deviated from the old turnpike. But the end result still led all the way from the Shenandoah Valley westward to the Ohio River.

Along this road, West Virginians continued to work, play, and live through all of the tumultuous events of the America in the 20^th Century. Much of this history is still embodied in the living memories of the area’s residents, and is shared in this audio history, the final volume of the four-part series Voices Of The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike.