Don Olson produces maple syrup on his 75-acre farm. At 7 a.m. the air around the farm in Blue Rock, W.Va. is filled with a sweet aroma. The scent comes from the small 27 by 21 feet sugarhouse where Olson is already sitting, preparing for the day’s syrup production. The Olsons’ Blue Rock Farm in […]
The Great Depression and THE guidebook of West Virginia The book featured in the photo to the left is called West Virginia: A Guide to the Mountain State, published by the West Virginia Writers’ Project in 1941. It was written over seventy years ago during the Great Depression, and though most local libraries own a […]
“US Route 219, known in West Virginia as the Seneca Trail…. …Closely follows the section of the Warriors Road that crossed the State. The route traversed a region known in the early history of Virginia as West Augusta, which in the dark days of the Revolution is said to have inspired George Washington to […]
The Allegheny Trail is a backpacking and mountain bike trail that runs 330 miles along some of the most breathtaking mountaintops in the Allegheny and the Ridge and Valley Ranges in West Virginia. Most of its access points are within a few miles of US 219, and it follows a similar path through dense Mountain […]
“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 […]
During May and early June, the state flower of West Virginia bursts forth with exuberant zeal throughout the forests near US 219. Also known as “Big Laurel”, these clustered flowers of pink, white and purple are an early bloom throughout the lush Allegheny Highlands. Rhododendrons have thick, rubbery evergreen leaves, and in some places can […]
“Here the waters of Blackwater River drop over a broken ledge to dash among large boulders 63 feet below, whence they continue their rushing foaming course down Blackwater Canyon. A footpath leads (L) among thickets of laurel and hemlock to a clearing with a fine view of the rugged beauty of the falls and canyon.”- West Virginia Writers’ […]
“Edray occupied the Site of Fort Drinnen, a small stockade named for Thomas Drinnen, who settled here in 1774. His cabin was attacked by Indians, his wife killed, and his little son taken captive. Drinnen joined General Lewis’s expedition against the Indians, fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant, and after the war wandered through the […]
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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