West Virginia's Lesser Known Gems

The main reason that we made this trip down the winding roads of central West Virginia was to check another national park off our list. But we are finding this area also has some lesser-known gems. For example, we made the drive to Cathedral Falls one day.

This is one of the stops on the "official West Virginia Waterfall Trail." A sign at Cathedral Falls notes that this is one of those official stops for a "waterfall wanderer." That sounds like a good place to stop for a couple that wanders God's wonders.

We know that we have found another of God's wonders when we see the beauty of the rock ledges that form a naturally perfect curtain as the water splashes down the mountain. There really isn't much water this time of year, but that almost made it prettier with its delicate lacy flow.

Also enjoying the moisture here was this butterfly. The silhouette was interesting in this view from the top . . .

but it was prettier to see the side view with those long tails. This is a zebra swallowtail, and we don't remember seeing one before. A little research shows that they are found only in the eastern United States, and we haven't traveled this direction much.

Our next stop is at Hawks Nest State Park. This park is cut in two by Highway 60--the curvy road where we drove the motor home to get to our present camp site. A stop along the highway gave us a hawk's eye view of the river below.

But we couldn't settle for a simple view like that, could we? So we started a hike that took us sharply down-hill on the Cliffside Trail. 

It was a rugged trail, but we enjoyed the views of the steep gorge walls as we hiked deeper and deeper into the canyon. Even from the beginning, we weren't looking forward to hiking back up-hill at the end of this hike.

We could have re-traced our steps and returned to the pickup the same way we came. But once the trail brought us out of the canyon further down the road, we could make this a loop by hiking about a half-mile along the highway. This would have been easier (and safer) if this highway wasn't filled with blind curves and almost no shoulder. We survived, but we wouldn't recommend this two-mile loop. Motorists are warned that there might be crazy hikers along this highway. Mark is mirroring the hiker on the sign as we go around another blind curve.

The third little-known gem is actually a part of the national park. We decided to make the drive to the Nuttallburg Mine section of the New River Gorge National Park. Being familiar with the usual standards of national parks, we didn't consider that this might be a treacherous drive. We were surprised to see that the road leading to the Nuttallburg was very narrow.

Then that narrow paved road turned into an even narrower gravel road with pot holes. With rock walls on both sides of that narrow road, the only option would be to back up if you met a vehicle coming from the opposite direction. But we soon came to realize that very few people visit Nuttallburg, and we were glad that we didn't meet a single vehicle on this four-mile road.

We were relieved to finally park the pickup in the little parking lot, and started exploring the coal mining structures that have been left behind. 

Coal was discovered in the walls of the steep river gorge in the 1870's. But how could the coal be mined, then transported out of this remote location? John Nuttall actually built an entire town here at the bottom of the New River Gorge and named it Nuttallburg. He needed people to work the mine, and soon the coalminers moved their families into this remote gorge. That means that Nuttall also built a school and churches, and we found the remains of the general store. 

For seventy years, they mined coal out of the walls of this gorge and transported it to the bottom on a huge conveyer belt. That conveyer led into the red building that is called a tipple because the loads of coal were tipped into railroad cars. Then the coal was loaded onto a specially-built railroad to get it out of this remote location.

They also built 80 coke ovens here in the gorge. They were not cooking-up coca-cola. They were slow-cooking coal to make it into a substance called "coke" that burns hotter and was used in the steel industry. These coke ovens have been idle for over 100 years.

It was about this time that Henry Ford got interested in coal, and took over ownership of the mine. He upgraded everything, including this 1,385-feet-long conveyer belt that moved the coal more efficiently down to the bottom of the gorge. This is one of the longest conveyers ever built, and it was a sight to see as it snaked its way high up the wall of the New River Gorge.

It was interesting to learn the stories of the work that once happened here, and the families that once lived here. The mine closed in 1958, and there was no reason for anyone to remain in this remote location. The homes and buildings were left behind when everyone evacuated the town at the same time. We hiked all the trails that took us through the ruins of the town, but we saw evidence that this is a little-visited national park location. The trails were all overgrown from lack of use and lack of maintenance.

It has been over 60 years since people lived in Nuttallburg, and the forest has almost erased the evidence that a town once prospered here.

The forest is good at reclaiming things. This old log is now host to a strange spongy fungus that is pretty in its own way.

Another dead tree is hosting something that we've never seen before. A google search reveals that this is carnival candy slime mold. It looks a little like fresh hamburger, but it is actually made up of single-cell amoebae that come together when conditions are right.

We also found chunks of coal around this historical site, a reminder of what brought all those people here to a town that has been erased from the map.

Now we face the drive back out of Nuttallburg, hoping that no one else plans to visit this lesser-known part of the New River Gorge National Park today. A tree fell over the road recently, and we dodged by it to get home. After a day of exploring some of West Virginia's lesser known gems, we can't help but start singing John Denver's song that starts with the lyrics: "Almost heaven, West Virginia . . ." We break into the chorus now, 

"Country roads, take me home, 

to the place I belong,

West Virginia, Mountain Mama,

Take me home, country roads."

Our home is the motor home, sitting down this country road at Babcock State Park--another lesser known gem here in West Virginia.