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2.
A More Complete
Sequential Itinerary:
The Turnpike In Detail...
Starting from the State Line
between Virginia and West Virginia, get ready for a unique experience
riding the highways and backroads of Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. At
the State Line turn left at the directional sign to Camp Allegheny. A
short drive on the Allegheny Backway will bring you to a parking area on
the left, stop and read the interpretive sign as you view Camp Allegheny.
Get back on the Backway and continue on the Turnpike to another
interpretive sign on the right. Get out and view the many stone chimney
falls, the only remains of soldier’s cabins. Think about the winter they
spent here at this high elevation site.
Continue westward and imagine you are in a wagon going to the Midwest or
beyond to a new life, as our ancestors did. Be sure to stop at the
historic cemetery on the left. As you continue enjoy the magnificent
vistas on both sides of the road. Perhaps you can catch a glimpse of the
giant satellite dishes and the Greenbank Radio Astronomy Observatory.
After about a 30-minute drive, you will arrive at an intersection on the
eastern edge of Bartow. You can make a pullover stop here. On your right
is Confederate Camp Bartow and Traveller’s Repose. There are two
interpretive signs here, one on the house, and one in front of the
house. Continue into Bartow and stop at the Ranger Station, where there
is a small Civil War museum, and an opportunity to pick up some maps and
brochures. Moving on, you arrive at Frank, a company town. There was
once a large tannery here, using local hides, and bark from locally
logged trees. When people began to wear fewer leather shoes, and less
logging was being done, the cost of importing raw materials for
manufacturing became prohibitive. The tannery shut down. Proceeding west
you will soon arrive at Durbin. Here you can catch an historic train at
the original depot, buy a ticket to ride another train at Cheat Bridge,
or visit the shops. On the
west side of Durbin, you have a choice, continue on the highway, or take
the Backway by crossing the Iron Bridge. Both ways will bring you to the
same spot, and both will start climbing Cheat Mountain.
When you reach the top, at the County Line, there is a small pull off with
a great vista. Count how many ranges you can see. You are now entering the
Monongahela National Forest. Continue on this mountain top plateau.
Believe it or not, there is a swamp here with rare northern species of
endangered plants. You may want to turn right at the Gaudineer Knob sign.
Drive 2 miles to a Forest Service Recreation site with signs, and a short
loop trail that will bring you through the tall virgin Spruce to a vista
overlooking a beautiful forested valley. Go back to the Byway, and
continue to a sign on your left directing you to Cheat Mountain Club. Here
you have another choice, continue on the Byway, or go onto the Backway.
The Backway gravel road crosses the railroad tracks, and turns to the left
toward Cheat Bridge, an historic iron bridge. Before crossing the bridge,
you may want to ride a different historic train up the river toward areas
reachable only by train or on foot. (Tickets available at Durbin.)
Continue straight, and arrive at the Cheat Mountain Club, an historic
hunting and fishing lodge. It serves a similar clientele today. If you
have reservations, you may want to stay and fish for trout, or go back to
the iron bridge, cross it, and follow directional signs to Union Cheat
Summit Fort. Park on the right, read the interpretive signs, and take the
short walk up to the Fort. You may also drive up the road on your left to
a vista with an outhouse. Stop at the cemetery on your right to see where
soldiers were once buried, then moved to the National Cemetery at Grafton.
Go back to the Byway by the way you came, or return by a well-marked short
cut.
The road down the mountain is steep and winding. Drive carefully. Soon you
will arrive in the pleasant valley of Riffle Run. Here on the left
(unmarked) was a temporary supply station to provide for the soldiers at
Cheat Summit Fort. As you drive on you will come to the wide valley of the
Tygart Valley River. Pass the Huttonsville Correctional Facility and its
farm fields, travel through Huttonsville and Millcreek slowly to admire
historic homes, and arrive at Valley Bend, Dailey, and East Dailey
Historic District. Here is an extended community of 1930s historic homes,
as well as shops, a sawmill, a school, and administrative buildings of a
New Deal development. This was a project to provide work, skills training,
and homes for out of work lumbermen, and coal miners during the Great
Depression.
Immediately after crossing the bridge north of Dailey, look on your right
on top of a hill. This is the Swecker house with Civil War trenches
curving around the slope. These Union fortifications were to control the
road. This was the area on this side of the mountains first settled by
pioneers in the 1700s. Indian raids drove them out.
Soon you will arrive at Beverly a 1790 historic town with an Historic
District. You may want to stop to visit the Staunton- Parkersburg Turnpike
Visitor Center, the Rich Mountain Visitor Center, the Randolph County
Historical Society Museum, and the Lemuel Chenoweth House. You can pick up
a walking tour brochure, and stretch your legs a bit. All historic
structures have interpretive signs. You can lunch here, on plain but good
food.
Here there is another Byway or Backway decision to make. Turn left at the
directional sign in Beverly to go on the Rich Mountain Backway. Or go
north 6 miles to Elkins, where there are services including hotels,
motels, fast food restaurants, upscale restaurants, a hospital, doctors,
vets, and historic sites.
If you choose the Backway, follow the directional signs to the top of Rich
Mountain. This is a steep winding gravel road. Drive carefully. Here a
1861 battle occurred that made the reputation of General McClellan.
Continue for another mile to Camp Garnett, a Confederate fortification on
both sides of the road. Read the interpretive signs, and take a short loop
trail with signs.
If you go on to Elkins, turn left at Hazelwood, about a mile north of
Beverly, on the Airport Road. This will bring you onto the original
Beverly Fairmont Turnpike. At about ½ mile on the left there is a monument
commemorating Adam Stalnaker who was killed by Indians here in 1780, after
another ½ mile on the right is a monument identifying the location of
Wilson’s Fort. Although never attacked, this 1774 log structure was built
to help
shelter people from Indian attacks.
Another ½ mile will bring you back to the main highway and Elkins. This is
a good place to have a meal and rest for the night. Your trip is about
half over. Elkins has a downtown Historic District, and a National
Historic Landmarks District at the D & E College. The college is named for
Henry Gassaway Davis, entrepreneur and US Senator, and Stephen B. Elkins,
also an entrepreneur and US Senator. Their mansions are on campus, as are
several classroom buildings, and a gatehouse, all within the Landmarks
District. Be sure to drive through this lovely hilly campus. Visit the old
railroad depot downtown that is now a visitor center to see their
displays, and pick up maps and brochures. After a nice meal and a restful
night, you are ready to continue.
You may get back to the Byway in two ways. Continue on US 33 to Norton;
turn left onto 151 to Pumpkintown where the Rich Mountain Backway
intersects. Continue on road 151 through a series of small towns,
including Ellamore, Sand Run, Excelsior, Daysville, Heavenor Grove,
Deanville, and then to Buckhannon. If you arrive in April, you may want to
join in the Strawberry Festival. Buckhannon has restaurants, motels, and
museums. Be sure to notice their attractive Upshur County Courthouse, and
the Upshur County Historical Society Museum, once a church. The church was
used by the Union to store supplies. The Confederate Jenkins Raid, looted
the church, stacked supplies in the street, and burned them. Guns and
ammunition were tossed down the Courthouse well, and shops along Main
Street (the Byway) were pillaged.
As you leave Buckhannon, you will pass under US 33. This rather new road
replaced the Turnpike, but parts of the original road parallel it. Here
the road is called 12. Follow it to Lorentz, the center of the US
population in 1840, the time when the Turnpike was being built, and turn
back onto modern US 33. By now you will have noticed that you have left
the mountains and are into rolling hills where there are more farms.
After passing into Lewis County, go about 3.5 miles to an intersection.
Turn left at the Stonecoal Church to get to the Stonecoal Lake Wildlife
Management Area and fish for excellent pan fish, or turn right onto Horner
Road and go to the Central West Virginia Genealogy and History Library to
research your ancestry. The road in front of this library is the original
Turnpike, and by continuing westward on it, you arrive at a dead end near
the Interstate. Here you will see the Coachhouse Inn, an original place to
stop, eat, spend the night, and change horses on the Turnpike.
Go back to US 33 and continue on under the Interstate, and into Weston.
There is an Historic District here with a glass museum, the old bank, and
a Visitor Center in the Colored School. Stop here to learn more about this
site, the town of Weston, and pick up information, maps, and brochures.
Stay on the Byway, and as it crosses the West Fork River, you will see on
your left the Trans Allegheny Insane Asylum, started in 1858, but finished
in 1880. It is the largest hand cut stone structure in the US. It is a
National Historic Landmark.
Traveling west you will again pass through many small towns. Drive slowly
and look for historic houses, churches, and farms. You will go through
Waldeck, Pricetown, Camden, Alum Bridge, and Pickle Street, all in Lewis
County.
Go into Gilmer County where our Byway now changes its name to 47. Pass
through Linn, and Troy. Be sure to check out the Troy school. About a mile
past Troy, on the left is the Farnsworth House. The Turnpike brought
prosperity to the Farnsworths, and they built a Tavern on the right side
of the road for travelers to stop and refresh, with a weigh station to
weigh cattle being driven down the Turnpike to markets. The son of this
family was the second Governor of West Virginia.
At the County Line with Ritchie County, there is a vista to the south. The
next town is Racket, so called because of the rowdy Saturday night
parties, or for the racket made at boxing matches. Go on to Burnt House,
so named for the hotel that burned there. This fire was said to have been
set by a disgruntled slave woman, to get back at her lover owner. Her
ghost lingered for years. The Burnt House of today is a private home on
the original foundation, at the intersection of 47 and 47/16. About a mile
past Burnt House, on the left is a log tollhouse. Next town is Thursday,
so named because every name the townsfolk came up with was already taken,
so they had a meeting with the Post Office to settle the issue, on a
Thursday. The next town along the road is Smithville. Here everything has
changed, the center of town, and the Turnpike location, several times.
Flooding on the Hughes River caused these changes. See if you can figure
out where things used to be.
Beyond Smithville the Hughes River meanders a great deal, and the Turnpike
that follows the River meanders too. A short distance past the Turnpike
intersection with road 21 is the town of Macfarlan. By turning north on
road 30 just past the bridge, you can get to the Ritchie Mines Wildlife
Management Area. This is land reclaimed from a previous asphalt mine.
Return to the Byway the same way you came. About ½ mile beyond the road
30/Byway intersection is the Oxbow Road, the original route. This road is
no longer maintained and is not recommended. The original Turnpike went
around a substantial meander to avoid building bridges over the Hughes
River.
Soon after arriving in Wirt County there is an intersection of the Byway
with road 47/1. This road leads to the Hughes River Wildlife Management
Area. Return by the same route. At the 47/1 intersection on the north side
of the road once stood the California House, so called because the owner
became rich after striking oil on his land in 1849. The house is no longer
extant, but we know there was oil nearby that began a boom for this area
of the state. A short distance north are the towns of Burning Springs, and
Petroleum.
Enter Wood County at the confluence of the Hughes and Little Kanawha
Rivers. About ½ mile from the County Line is a campground with boat
launching facilities. The Kanawha River was used to float and transport
raw materials from mines and farms. Locks helped the navigability. If you
wish to see the remnants of one of locks, turn left onto 47/12 about two
miles past the campground. This road dead ends at the River where you will
see lock remains. Return the route you came. Two more miles down the road
is the intersection with road 47/17. Turning right, and going under road
47 will bring you onto a segment of the original road. If you choose this
way, go slowly, because the road is not well maintained, and if the River
is up, it may be impassable.
You are now approaching Parkersburg, and nearing the end of your journey.
At the intersection of 47 and 47/22 and across the road is the West
Virginia University Parkersburg Campus. The Poor Farm Cemetery is on the
Campus. After passing under Interstate 77 look to the west, toward the
River and see an old bridge. About 3 miles past the Interstate is the
intersection of 47 and US 50 (the route of the old Northwestern Turnpike). Here the two join and go on to the Ohio
River. There was a tollhouse here, and an interpretive sign to identify
the location. On the north side of this intersection lies Oakland Mansion,
visible through the giant oaks.
While you are in Parkersburg visit the Historic District, the Visitor
Center, the Oil and Gas Museum, and the Blennerhasset Museum where you can
arrange a riverboat ride to historic Blennerhasset Island. There are many
restaurants, hotels, motels, a hospital, doctors, and a great bookstore in
an historic building.
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