For centuries the route traveled by U.S. Route 219 has been well worn by the feet and machines of human transportation. Once used for hunting, trading, and war by Indian nations and known as the Seneca Trail, the route was overtaken by white settlers and their wagons by the end of the 18th century. In the 1860s war again came to these mountains, and soldiers in uniforms of blue and gray marched up and down the same trails. Laborers followed soldiers, laying down tracks that introduced the railroad, which sprawled out among the mountains to extract timber to bigger markets. By the 1930s the automobile was king, and the state road system was established, literally paving the way for contemporary tourists and commuters.
You can zoom in and out of this map and click & drag it to move around and explore it. Click on the different colored markers for more information on that particular civil war site. Timeline of Events in West Virginia during the Civil War along or near U.S. Route 219. 1861: June 3, […]
The Greenbrier River Trail (GRT) runs 78 miles along former tracks of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. From North Calwell (3 miles east of U.S. Route 219 in Lewisburg) the trail follows the scenic Greenbrier River through Greenbrier and Pocahontas Counties to Cass. The GRT is maintained as a part of the West Virginia State […]
The Monroe County Historical Society has begun the construction of a home in Union for their carriage collection. Inspired by the Greenbrier Historical Society’s Wagon House in Lewisburg, the 1000 square feet Gothic Revival style building will be large enough to accommodate five horse drawn vehicles. The ground has been leveled, the concrete floor has […]
Here is another episode in our series about mountain lion and panther sightings in West Virginia. In the early 1900s in Monroe County, a mountain lion stole the straw hat right off the head of Clarence Mohler. His grandson, Craig Mohler, editor of The Monroe Watchman, told me this story last year when we were […]
After two years of forest restoration work on top of Cheat Mountain, a new tourist train is climbing the old logging tracks to the old ghost town of Spruce, which sits nearly 4,000 feet above sea level. The forests here are returning after decades of timber and coal extraction that nearly devastated the rare boreal […]
The town of Oakland, Maryland lies 11.5 miles north of the West Virginia-Maryland line on U.S. Route 219. The history of Oakland is linked to the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which laid its tracks through the Allegheny Mountains of Western Maryland in the 1850s. When the original train station in Oakland burned down, the current […]
“We took them up the highway, over the old covered bridge.”- Don Rice, of Elkins, remembering driving cattle over the Chenoweth Bridge. Many local people who grew up in Beverly or Elkins remember the old Beverly Bridge, built by Lemuel Chenoweth in 1846-1847. Chenoweth was a local carpenter and a self-educated engineer who grew up in Beverly and built many wooden covered bridges, including the famous landmark of Barbour County, the Phillipi Covered Bridge. He is buried at the Beverly Cemetery.
Click the map to download a high-resolution copy of the Traveling 219 map, or pick up a hard copy at one of many locations along U.S. Route 219. You may also view our interactive map of Traveling 219 stories [HERE].
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