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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Mill Point was “formerly called Cackleytown. The present name is derived from the fact that the place was a pioneer milling point with two flour mills located on Stamping Creek” . – the West Virginia Encyclopedia, written by Jim Comstock.
“The Old McNeel Mill (R), on the bank of Stamping Creek, was built by Isaac McNeel about 1868 and still operates, driven by an overshot wheel. Stephen Sewell, an early settler, camped near by in a cave in 1750 after his quarrel with Jacob Marlin.” – 1941, the West Virginia Writers’ Project.
With the smell of spruce in the air, travelers can walk beneath the shadows of these vast trees and imagine these forests as they once stood But the story behind this forest of virgin timber is just as incredible as the enchantment of its beauty–the trees here were spared the lumberman’s axe due to a surveying error.
Pickaway and its surrounding area was long inhabited by the Seneca tribe of Native Americans, and their main pathway through the mountains was roughly the same route that 219 follows today. Pickaway was also known as “Pickaway Plains”, and though the exact origin of the name is not fully clear, the Picqua tribe of Native Americans was one way or another most probably the source of this unique name.
“This is our Bloody Butcher Corn, it’s all different colors, see? It’s red, yellow and purple.”
Reed’s Mill has been grinding an heirloom variety of corn called Bloody Butcher, grown locally and from the same seeds that have been ground at the mill for generations. Possibly, all the way back to when the mill first opened around 1791.
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Buttercups and buttered-bread mark the town of Frankford. Founded in 1769, Frankford was the first settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. The town was once a trading center; now it is well known for a bakery, offering an old-time treat: breads baked according to traditional recipes of the region.
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Renick was settled by William Renick and Captain Robert McClanahan in 1769. When the train still ran, it was a major agricultural trading center. In the early 1900s Renick was home to one of the first creameries in the area. Here they processed milk for the local farms even in the hardest of times, when there was no bridge and they had to ferry the milk across the Greenbrier River on a boat.
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Most families in the town of Valley Head were rooted to the timber. Logs fell during the day and the town really came to life at night. George Swecker, whose childhood home doubled as the town doctor’s office years ago, recalls men coming in with “their entrails in their hands,” wounded from a rough night out in town. As he puts it, “it was just like the wild west”.
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“There were enough kids for two baseball teams.”
The community here was once filled with running creeks, fertile farmland and the sound of baseball bats cracking on a Sunday afternoon.
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A bright red, brick courthouse stands at the center of Parsons. Since 1893 Parsons has been the county seat of Tucker County.
Back then, armed guards took the county records from St. George to Parsons, and though no fighting took place, the men of St. George had planned to defend the county seat with their lives.
Click to hear the story of Doyle Kisner, of Parsons….
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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