As with any good, historic highway, there are mysteries along US 219 too. There are tales of black panthers that lurk at the edge of the Cranberry Wilderness, a 35 carat diamond that was unearthed in a game of horseshoes, and tales of ghosts in Greenbrier County.
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 […]
by Roxy Todd and Dan Schultz, Traveling 219 In Christmas of 1955, at least six people reported seeing a beige mountain lion near Marlinton, West Virginia, according to an article by Calvin Price, who was then the editor for The Pocahontas Times. Browsing through the newspaper articles that Price wrote, Traveling 219 producers Roxy Todd and […]
The Punch Jones diamond is a 34.46 carat diamond, named after the boy who discovered it in 1928 while he and his father were pitching horseshoes at their home outside Peterstown, WV. For most of its course through West Virginia, US 219 borders rivers and creeks— The North Fork of the Blackwater, The Shavers Fork […]
The ballad of Omie Wise has been sung many times. It has been included in Jim Comstock’s West Virginia Songbag, sung by Maggie Hammons and other West Virginian ballad singers.3 Some say that Naomi Wise, or Omie Wise, of ballad fame is actually from Randolph County, WV: I’ll tell you the story about little Naomi […]
The Traveling 219 Project teamed up with classes at the Greenbrier Episcopal School in Lewisburg this school year to bring local history and folklore into the classroom. Here is Elsa Howell and Zoe Hinkey, retelling the story of the Greenbrier Ghost, or the haunting of Elva Zona Heaster, which they researched and turned into cranky […]
“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.
“Our cheeks are rosy and our eyeballs are dry in their sockets from the heat of the kerosene lamps, giving the only light to our conversations.” –2012, interviewer Emily Newton remembers from her visits to Pleasant Valley Maryland. “Only one group of early Maryland settlers has descendants who have never given up their distinguishing customs: These are […]
A long black tail, yellow eyes, a scream in the woods at night…
There are more than 300,000 acres of National Forest in Pocahontas County, WV. Many people say that panthers still live in these woods, from the high peaks of the Allegheny ridgeline to the Cranberry Wilderness with miles and miles of unspoiled forests, there’s plenty of room to roam, that’s for sure.
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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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