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 […]
“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 […]
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.
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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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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