Last week, while archivists at the Greenbrier Historical Society and North House Museum were sorting through one of the collection boxes, this coin was uncovered. The coin, along with seven other similar coins all with differentiating values, has the archivists at the North House Museum wanting to learn more, and they are looking for your […]
Can you help the Traveling 219 Project tell the story of the pink cone of Pocahontas County, which sits just off US 219 on Elk Mountain? When it was first built more than 75 years ago, it was an ice cream stand, located on the corner of 4th Ave. and Main Street in Marlinton, where […]
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 third week in September is normally the peak season for broad-winged hawks to migrate through West Virginia. Hundreds of volunteers will also travel to Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory in Monroe County to help count the migrating hawks, eagles and falcons. Rodney Davis, a retired heavy equipment operator from Sinks Grove, is one of the […]
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 […]
Ed and Agnes-Hannah Friel spent part of their childhoods around the Mill Point Federal Prison camp, where both had parents working as federal prison officers and they met as children. The Mill Point Federal Prison camp was opened in 1938 for low level federal prisoners and work was immediately begun on construction of the road […]
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 […]
World War Two Veteran Sherman Beard remembers flying over Europe as a B-24 pilot in the last months of the war. Sherman was stationed in Foggia, Italy in 1945, where he flew 35 missions over Europe. Traveling 219 interviewed him recently about his experiences, and put this piece together in commemoration of Veterans Day. Sherman […]
West Virginia’s Anna Jarvis is recognized as the founder of Mother’s Day. Her birthplace in Taylor County is located along Us 119, and the local community there celebrates her family each year at the annual Mother’s Day Festival. Jarvis established the first Mother’s Day celebration to honor the work of her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis. Anna Reeves […]
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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