West Virginia, USA

Photographs Copyright 2008 by Tom Dempsey. I last modified this page on Feb 6, 2009.
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Index to West Virginia: Babcock State Park , Harpers Ferry , Green Bank Telescope , New River Gorge Bridge , Hawks Nest State Park , Appalachians geology map

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Babcock State Park

Babcock State Park is located along the New River Gorge in Fayette County, West Virginia, USA. Located near the park headquarters, the Glade Creek Grist Mill is among the most photographed tourist sites in the state. The Glade Creek Grist Mill is a replica of the original Cooper's Mill that was located nearby. The current grist mill, completed in 1976, was assembled from parts of three other West Virginia mills. The Glade Creek Grist Mill as a living, working monument to the more than 500 mills formerly running throughout the state of West Virginia.

Above: Panorama of Glade Creek Grist Mill in late October, stitched from 6 images.

Babcock State Park rents rustic cabins heated only by fireplace but otherwise fully electrified, with kitchen and hot shower.





Carol warms herself in a rocking chair front of the fireplace at a cabin rented in Babcock State Park.


Left: Glade Creek flows past Glade Creek Grist Mill, West Virginia.

Below: Glade Creek cascades down the rocks at Glade Creek Grist Mill, West Virginia.


Left: A sign reads "KAYAK AT YOUR OWN RISK...NO SWIMMING" at Glade Creek Grist Mill, in Babcock State Park.

Below: Brown autumn leaves have sunk into the clear waters of Glade Creek in Babcock State Park.

USGS Appalachian zones in the USA (United States Geological Survey)

Appalachians Map

Left: The Appalachians are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians. The USGS defines the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division as consisting of thirteen provinces: the Atlantic Coast Uplands, Eastern Newfoundland Atlantic, Maritime Acadian Highlands, Maritime Plain, Notre Dame And Megantic Mountains, Western Newfoundland Mountains, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, Saint Lawrence Valley, Appalachian Plateaus, New England province, and the Adirondack provinces. A common variant definition does not include the Adirondack Mountains, which are often said to have more in common with the Canadian Shield than the Appalachians.


Below: Glade Creek Grist Mill image # 08WV-1037.jpg


Left: The Grist Mill reflects in Glade Creek.





Below: A grinding stone contains this pattern at Glade Creek Grist Mill, in Babcock State Park. The Glade Creek Grist Mill is a replica of the original Cooper's Mill that was located nearby. The current grist mill, completed in 1976, was assembled from parts of three other West Virginia mills. The Glade Creek Grist Mill as a living, working monument to the more than 500 mills formerly running throughout the state. Photo Copyright by Carol Dempsey.

Harpers Ferry
Right: The states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet at the historic B&O Railraod Crossings, where the Potomac & Shenandoah Rivers cut through the Appalachian Mountains at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.


Harpers Ferry is best known for John Brown's abolitionist raid on the Armory in 1859, which escalated tensions two years before the American Civil War. Harper's Ferry was then in Virginia, but is now in Jefferson County, West Virginia. The Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers cut through the Appalachian Mountains here and formed a low lying flood plain upon which the town is built. Harpers Ferry is one of the few towns directly traversed by the Appalachian Trail. Today, the town contains both Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the populated Harpers Ferry Historic District (higher above the flood plain). The U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet at this river confluence.
    While standing at what is now called Jefferson Rock in Harpers Ferry, Thomas Jefferson admired this confluence in 1783 and wrote, "The passage of the Patowmac [Potomac] through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature... This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." In 1803, Meriwether Lewis spent a month at Harpers Ferry obtaining supplies, including weapons and a collapsible iron frame boat, which turned out to be critical for the successful Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803-1806), the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.

Left: John Brown’s Fort was a guard / fire engine house that Brown seized at the Harpers Ferry Armory in 1859 in Virginia (now in West Virginia). Abolitionist Brown attempted to incite a slave insurrection here 2 years before the Civil War, but was captured, tried for treason against the state of Virginia, and hanged. The building was built in 1848 as a guard and fire engine house for the federal Harpers Ferry Armory.

Below: The Potomac (foreground) and Shenandoah (middle right) Rivers meet at Harpers Ferry at the footings of several old bridges, one from 1870.


Left: An actor dressed as a confederate soldier walks through Harpers Ferry. The Confederate States of America existed briefly from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War (or War Between the States). Members of all the Confederate States military forces, including the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps were often refered to as "Confederates", and members of the CS Army were referred to as "Confederate soldiers". Supplementing the CS Army were the various state militias.

Below: A dog peers through a window in a white fence at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.


Left: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Crossings at the Potomac River are a set of railroad bridges (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) that span the Potomac River between Maryland Heights, Maryland and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Two bridges comprise the current crossing. The more recent bridge (on the left) is a deck plate girder bridge dating to 1930-31 which curves across the river, carrying the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad main line to Martinsburg, West Virginia. The older bridge (on the right) is a steel Pratt truss and plate girder bridge dating to 1894, carrying the B&O Valley line toward Winchester, Virginia along the Shenandoah River. A tunnel was built at the same time as the 1894 bridge to carry the tracks through Maryland Heights and to eliminate a sharp curve. The western end of the tunnel was widened in conjunction with the construction of the second bridge to allow the broadest possible curve across the river. Just downstream of the 1894 bridge, almost at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, are the ruins of two previous bridges on the same alignment. The newer of the bridges was a Bollman truss bridge that carried rail and highway traffic from 1870 until 1936, when it was swept away by a flood.
    As of 2008, Amtrak, the US national passenger rail system, provides service to Harpers Ferry twice a day (once in each direction). It is also served by the MARC commuter rail service, on its Brunswick line. The city's passenger rail station is located at the West Virginia end of the historic railroad bridge across the Potomac River. In addition about forty or fifty CSX freight trains daily pass through Harpers Ferry and over the bridge spanning the Potomac River.

Below: The historic Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Crossings at the Potomac River cross the Potomac River between Maryland Heights, Maryland and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.


Left: St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church stands prominently above Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The original church was built in 1833 in a pseudo-Gothic style and escaped destruction in the American Civil War. The church was extensively altered in 1896 in the then-popular Neo-Gothic style to produce the church seen today (listed on the National Register of Historic Places). The church commands a sweeping vista across the gorge of the Shenandoah River above its confluence with the Potomac River. A short trail leads from the church to Jefferson Rock. Jefferson Rock: In his 1783 visit with daughter Patsy, Thomas Jefferson said: "The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps  one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature."



Left: Jefferson Rock is secured by posts to its bedrock of Harpers Shale in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. In his visit to this rock with daughter Patsy in 1783, Thomas Jefferson said: "The passage of the Patowmac [Potomac] through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature... This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." Although Jefferson was widely read and very well educated, surprisingly, he did not travel widely, apart from serving as minister to France from 1785 to 1789. Thomas Jefferson achieved remarkable feats as a horticulturist, statesman, architect (see Monticello, Virginia), archaeologist and inventor. He was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, the third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia. He instigated the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and launched the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806).


Below: St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church stands prominently above Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The original church was built in 1833 in a pseudo-Gothic style and escaped destruction in the American Civil War. The church was extensively altered in 1896 in the then-popular Neo-Gothic style to produce the church seen today (listed on the National Register of Historic Places). The church commands a sweeping vista across the gorge of the Shenandoah River above its confluence with the Potomac River. A short trail leads from the church to Jefferson Rock.


Above: Harper Cemetery has graves dating from the 1830's, with a view of the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers where the US states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. Historically, Harpers Ferry is best known for John Brown's raid on the Armory in 1859 and its role in the American Civil War.

Left: St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia occupies a prominent location on the heights above Harpers Ferry. The original church was built in 1833 in a pseudo-Gothic style, kept intact as the only church in Harpers Ferry to escape destruction in the American Civil War. The church was extensively altered in 1896 in the then-popular Neo-Gothic style to produce the church seen today (listed on the National Register of Historic Places). The church commands a sweeping vista across the gorge of the Shenandoah River above its confluence with the Potomac River. A short trail leads from the church to Jefferson Rock.

Below: A bicycling family group explores Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.


Left: The Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad Crossings at the Potomac River are a set of railroad bridges (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) that cross the Potomac River from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and enter a tunnel at Maryland Heights, Maryland.

Below: This steel Pratt truss and plate girder bridge dates to 1894 and carries the B&O Valley line from Winchester, Virginia along the Shenandoah River. A tunnel was built at the same time as the 1894 bridge to carry the tracks through Maryland Heights and to eliminate a sharp curve. The western end of the tunnel was widened in conjunction with the construction of the second bridge to allow the broadest possible curve across the river. Just downstream (right) of the 1894 bridge, almost at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, are the ruins of two previous bridges on the same alignment. The newer of the bridges was a Bollman truss bridge that carried rail and highway traffic from 1870 until 1936, when it was swept away by a flood.

Green Bank Telescope

Left: The Green Bank Telescope, near the town of Green Bank, West Virginia, is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and Associated Universities, Inc. operate it using funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is surround by the 13,000 square miles of the only US national Radio Quiet Zone, established in 1958 by the FCC. The observatory contains many other notable telescopes, among them the 140 foot telescope that utilizes an equatorial mount uncommon for radio telescopes, three 85 foot telescopes forming an interferometer array, a 40 foot telescope used by school groups and organizations for small scale research, a fixed radio 'horn' built to observe Cygnus X-1, a bunk house to facilitate these guests, as well as a reproduction of the original antenna built by Karl Jansky while he worked for Bell Labs to detect the interference that was discovered to be previously unknown natural radio waves emitted by the universe.

Below: In late October, a red barn with white silo stands in a pastoral farm at the end of autumn leaf colors in West Virginia, USA.


A red barn with white silo sits on rolling pastoral hills amidst fall leaf colors in West Virginia, USA.

New River Gorge Bridge


Left: The New River Gorge Bridge, a part of US Highway 19, is a steel-arch bridge, in Fayetteville, West Virginia. With a length of 3030 feet (924 m), it was for many years the longest in the world of that type. Its arch extends 1700 feet (518 m). BASE jumping is allowed on "Bridge Day" held every October on the third Saturday, but Bungee jumping has been banned since an accident in 1993. The New River Gorge National River is a unit of the United States National Park Service designed to protect and maintain the area. Established in 1978, the area stretches for 53 miles (85 km) from just downstream of Hinton to Hawks Nest State Park near Ansted.

Below: Near Fayetteville, West Virginia, stairs lead down from Canyon Rim Visitor Center to a viewpoint for the New River Gorge Bridge, a high steel-arch bridge within the boundaries of New River Gorge National River.

Hawks Nest State Park

Left: Hawks Nest State Park is located in Fayette County near Ansted, West Virginia, USA. The park's clifftop overlook along U.S. Route 60 provides a scenic vista of the New River, some 750 feet (230 meters) below. The area is named for the Osprey that once nested in the cliffs. The Hawks Nest Dam seen just below the overlook was built to provide water for a hydroelectric plant to generate power for an electro-metallurgical plant at the town of Alloy, and dates to the 1930's. The tragic Depression-era Hawk's Nest incident: Construction of the tunnel, diverting waters of New River through Gauley Mt for hydroelectric power, resulted in West Virginia's worst industrial disaster. Silica rock dust caused 109 admitted deaths in the mostly black, migrant underground work force of 3,000. A Congressional hearing placed the death toll at 476 for the period from 1930 through 1935. The tragedy brought recognition of acute silicosis as an occupational lung disease, and compensation legislation to protect workers.


Right: Panorama of Glade Creek Grist Mill in late October, stitched from 4 images.


West Virginia, USA

Photographs Copyright 2008 by Tom Dempsey.
 
Index to West Virginia (top of this page): Babcock State Park , Harpers Ferry , Green Bank Telescope , New River Gorge Bridge , Hawks Nest State Park , Appalachians geology map


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