People gather inside an Opera House amidst the glow of winter. Skiiers glide from mountaintops; they plunge over forests that smell of Pine needles and snow falling on Red Spruce.
The Homestead School, completed in 1939, today serves as the Homestead Elementary School in Dailey, West Virginia. Originally part of the Tygart Valley Homestead, the Great Depression-era government resettlement community, the Homestead School was a proud part of the unique architecture developed in the valley as part of the homestead. The brick art-moderne building was state of […]
Along the highway in Pocahontas County, West Virginia sits a pink,15 foot Tepee. Shrouded in local mystery, no plaque or sign is out front to explain just what it is, but chances are if you’ve driven past the thing, it’s caught your eye. It is located along US 219 up Elk Mountain about five miles […]
“We command you to visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan” – seal of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows (IOOF). For part two click here. We came across this video while researching the history of Elkins. It tells the story of James Blevin, who grew up in […]
Elkins lies in a shallow, bowl-shaped valley at a five-mile bend in the Tygarts Valley River. The main part of the town extends from the north bank of the river up the gentle slopes of Cheat Mountain. The business district extends northward from the river and is flanked on the south by the West Maryland […]
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, ninety-nine subsistence communities were built as part of the New Deal to provide relief to unemployed families stranded in impoverished communities across the country. Three of those communities were built in West Virginia. One of them, the Tygart Valley Homestead, was developed right along US Route 219 in […]
A rainy Christmas parade was held in Marlinton this past Friday, December 6, but lots of folks around Pocahontas County still made it out to enjoy the bands, floats, firetrucks, treats, and craft show at the opera house. Traveling 219 made it out to record the sounds of the night, and put together this audio […]
This week, a fire started on the main street in Marlinton. It persisted for days, leaving numerous families without a home and affecting several businesses. Many groups are working to help those affected by this tragedy. For more information and to follow news regarding this story, please follow Allegheny Mountain Radio and Go Marlinton on […]
Eighteen miles south of Elkins, in Randolph County, lies the town of Huttonsville. Huttonsville sits in the Tygart Valley, where the historic Route 250–the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike–and route 219 meet. “The town of Huttonsville was named in honor of the Hutton family. Before the war the village was the educational center of the county. Until the […]
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 […]
A hundred years ago this month, Confederate veterans, family of veterans, and locals from the surrounding region made the trek out to southern Randolph County to an unlikely mountain pasture that looks down into the Tygarts River Valley. In 1913, they held a ceremony to dedicate the Mingo Confederate Soldier monument to their fallen Confederate […]
Over Bonnie Mural in Marlinton
Pocahontas County artist Molly Must created the Over Bonnie mural in downtown Marlinton, an ode to the West Virginia poet laureate and Buckeye, W. Va.-born Louise McNeill. The mural illustrates the transformation of Appalachia in the 19th and 20th century from the writings of local G.D. McNeill and the poems of his daughter, Louise. Click […]
Marlinton Residents Try to Remain Optimistic this Christmas
Traditions are a big part of Appalachian culture. And for the people of Marlinton, W.Va. that means that not even a fire could keep them from a Christmas celebration. A fire devastated one block of Main Street Marlinton, West Virginia in November of last year. Kelly Taber with Allegheny Mountain Radio reports that the town […]
Johnny Hill Won the 1983 Pocahontas County Liar’s Contest With This Magical Tall Tale
Now here’s something you don’t hear about everyday: A chicken that lays wooden eggs. It’s a tall tale told by a man named Johnny Hill, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Gibbs Kinderman brings us this archived recording of Johnny Hill’s magical story about some very peculiar hens. The above photo of the chickens was taken […]
Allegheny Echoes: Learning W. Va. Old Time Music at its Source
For one week each June, Marlinton, West Virginia lights up with the sound of fiddles and banjos. The weeklong workshop, Allegheny Echoes, attracts nearly 150 students each year to the mountains of Pocahontas County to play and learn traditional West Virginia old-time music. The epicenter of Allegheny Echoes is the Marlinton Motor Inn, where classes […]
Young Elkins Musicians Help Revive Old Time Music
photo of the Alleycats outside the Delmonte in Elkins, by Bill King. The Tribble’s house stands out from the street because of the solar panels on the roof, and because even from outside you can hear the sound of 16-year-old Walter King warming up his fiddle. Beside him stands Nevada Tribble, with long, straight red […]
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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