History of West Virginia, Old and New - Chapter III GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS

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From The History of West Virginia,
Old and New, by James Morton Callahan, 1923, 
Vol. I, pg. 21-39

CHAPTER III
GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS

"The earth is the mother of all, and the stones are her bones."

Man is a product of the earth's surface. This means not merely
that he is a child of the earth, dust of her dust; but that the earth has
mothered him, fed him, set him tasks, directed his thoughts, confronted
him with difficulties that have strengthened his body and sharpened
his wits, given him his problems of navigation or irrigation, and at the
same time whispered hints for their solution. She has entered into his
bone and tissue, into his mind and soul. On the mountains she has
given him leg muscles of iron to climb the slope.

The character and progress of a people are influenced by the soil
on which they live. The life of the inhabitants of a region is largely
determined by the character of the hills over which they roam or of the
fields on which they toil. Geological influences, both through the forma-
tion of soils and through deposits of rich mineral resources have greatly
influenced the industry of people and the course of history. Different
rocks or soils determine the location of different industries. In the
region where the Medina sandstone and Pottsville conglomerate appear
above the drainage, the people (few in number) have poor soil, bad
roads, few schools and fewer churches, and their principal occupations
are hunting, fishing, small farming, and possibly lumbering. In the
region of limestone surface the people have good soil, good roads, and
better schools and churches, and are prosperous farmers and stock
raisers or fruit growers.

Man can no more be scientifically studied apart from the ground
which he tills, or the lands over which he travels, or the seas over which
he trades, than polar bear or desert cactus can be understood apart from
its habitat. Man's relations to his environment are infinitely more
numerous and complex than those of the most highly organized plant
or animal. So complex are they that they constitute a legitimate and
necessary object of special study. Man has been so noisy about the
way he has "conquered Nature," and nature has been so silent in her
persistent influence over man, that the geographic factor in the equa-
tion of human development has been overlooked.

Mountain regions discourage the budding of genius because they
are areas of isolation, confinement, remote from the great currents of
men and ideas that move along the river valleys. They are regions
of much labor and little leisure, of poverty to-day and anxiety for the
morrow, of toil-cramped hands and toil-dulled brains. In the fertile
alluvial plains are wealth, leisure, contact with many minds and large
urban centers where commodities and ideas are exchanged.

In all democratic or representative forms of government permitting
free expression of popular opinion, division into political parties tends
to follow geographical lines of cleavage. In the Civil War the divid-
ing line between North and South did not always run east and west.
The men of the mountainous area of the southern Appalachians sup-
ported the Union and drove a wedge of disaffection into the heart of
the South. Mountainous West Virginia was politically opposed to the
tidewater plains of old Virginia, because slave labor did not pay on
the barren upright farms of the Cumberland Plateau.

History is not intelligible without geography. Its course is very
largely influenced by geographic facts - controls and responses - 
especially so among primitive peoples ignorant of this influence of
physical environment over their destinies. That the destinies of men
are very largely determined by their environment is admitted now even
by those who have firmly insisted on believing in the doctrine of free
will. Their food is determined by climate, their occupations are fixed
by physical features, their ideas and beliefs are suggested or colored by
the aspects of nature. Even the character of a given race is the resultant
of geographic influences and other influences operating parallel or con-
trary or in succession.

Geography forms the basis of history and often determines its trend.
Mountain passes determine the routes of migrations and the location of
earliest settlement in newly discovered regions. Rivers were the first
highways into the interior and river valleys and indicated the lines of least
resistance for later commercial highways. Geological formations, or
breaks in transportation, determine the place of industrial centers and
towns. An ancient upward fold or anticlinal fracture of the earth's
crust, worn away by the scouring of a glacier or the erosion of water
may determine the industrial life of a region by bringing the coal meas-
ures to the surface and exposing them as "outcrops" which attract
drift miners.

The relief affects the movements of the air, thus influencing tem-
perature and the rainfall. The climate and the weather influences the
health and energy of people and thereby influences their character.
The temperature, humidity, wind, sunshine, barometric pressure, and,
perhaps, atmospheric electricity and amount of ozone, affects every-
body. An invigorating climate stimulates industry, sobriety, self-con-
trol and honesty. It is one of the conditions which promote civiliza-
tion. West Virginia is in the zone of high climatic energy. The early
task of clearing its forests by work in the cool bracing autumn or in
winter and the later task of subduing the weeds and sprouts, was child's
play compared with the clearing of an equatorial forest.

In addition to the relatively constant physical features of location,
land forms and water bodies, and the more variable but relatively con-
stant feature of soils and minerals and the still more variable feature of
climate which constitute physical environment, human life is affected by
certain geographic variables such as the migration of harmful animals
and plants. Man is influenced by migration of destructive insects such
as locusts, chinch bugs and boll weevil, and of destructive plants such
as the daisy and the Scotch thistle, or parasitic fungi such as wheat rust
and potato blight. He is also influenced by a geographic environment
of microscopic migrating creatures known as bacteria which by their
insidious attacks - subject to conditions of climate, ventilation, and
food - produce devastating epidemics of contagious human diseases such
as influenza.

Geographical surroundings have a strong influence on political
conditions. Each of its various climates may cause conflicting sectional
interests, and political differences or determine political policies. Lo-
cation may result in particular prejudices or special interests which
dominate political questions. Relief may result in lines of cleavage.
The relief of the Appalachians influenced political allegiance and was
a powerful factor in determining the fate of the Southern secession
movement. Rich mineral deposits give rise to the political problems
of ownership or of taxation. Climate, by determining crops, has a
strong effect on political relations. Illogical boundaries may be a source
of political troubles. In international relations, geographical condi-
tions determine direction of national expansion into adjacent terri-
tory unless restrained or controlled by the power of concerted inter-
national action.

According to Herbert Spencer, life is largely a process of establish-
ing an equilibrium with environment. Man is a creature of the earth.
He battles with his environment, responds to its influence and even-
tually adjusts himself to it or is driven from it. Only by wise and
intelligent adjustment to physiographic conditions can he succeed best
in industrial life. The wisest adjustment is coincident with the highest
success. Without proper interpretation of natural conditions of environ-
ment, he fails.

The steady operation of geographic causes in history have been lit-
tle altered by human counteraction. The mountains, which have lost
their mystery, still form a barrier which affects the convenience of
every traveler. Although by arts and industries man can promote
natural resources to greater usefulness and harness nature to serve
civilization, he cannot ignore nor defy the conditions of environment
which restrict him. Although by intellectual alertness, which marks
progress in civilization, he can modify or reorganize his environment, he
cannot annihilate it. Possibly by the abandonment of the wheat in-
dustry, he can exterminate the chinch bug in his own narrow territory,
but in starting other crops he finds other conditions necessitating con-
stant warfare or new adjustments. Although he can utilize for a
railroad the grade established along a river by centuries of the work
of excavation by nature, and although by great dams he can divert and
harness part of the water of the river to the work of great power plants,
he cannot hope to resist the steady working of the great natural forces
and their boundless effects on history. Although by inventions he may
increase human activities which finally assume the nature of geographi-
cal control, he is in all such cases guided and controlled by nature which
must favor human undertaking if success is attained.

The desire for improvement in the condition of life has been the
chief motive of human progress. For this purpose man has broken
down the barriers of isolation and made trade and civilizing forces.

One of the most interesting studies is the relation of geographic
environment to human activities.  Geographic conditions present a
series of practical problems which are directly useful in the daily affairs
of life.

Physical environment largely influenced the life of the people who
established their homes in the region now included in West Virginia.

"Mountaineers are always free." In their early history influenced by
ruggedness and inaccessibility they were backward and uneducated.
They were heavily handicapped by the relief of the mountains - by
roads that run up hill, and consequently by the necessity of slower and
inadequate transportation, by the greater wear and tear on animals
and engines that pulled the loads, and by the increased cost of trans-
portation. Influenced by inadequate transportation facilities to enable
them to find a suitable market for their natural products, some were
tempted to become law breakers by distilling "moonshine" whisky which
could be more conveniently taken to a lowland market in order to sup-
ply the needs of ready money. If they farmed, they were also at a
disadvantage from the erosion of the soil by the rain or from landslides
and also from the difficulties of cultivation on hillsides. Therefore they
sought to improve their condition by keeping cattle or sheep or goats
which could graze on the slopes. Later they had an advantage over
lower regions through their larger supply of timber; but this was par-
tially overcome by the keener business insight of men of the cities who
bought cheaply enormous tracts of the forests before the original owners
had any idea of their value. Often they were placed at a new disad-
vantage by a wasteful exploitation and destruction of timber, resulting
in new areas of erosion. Their civilization was retarded by their long
periods of enforced idleness by scarcity of good artisans and by lack
of encouragement to the professions. Unfortunately, also, in some in-
stances, under the conditions of their isolation, they engaged in family
feuds which sometimes lasted for generations.

Later their life was greatly affected by gas, oil and coal which, in
addition to their industrial influence, exerted important social and po-
litical influences. Gas and petroleum had a large influence on human
activity. Petroleum in addition to its value as a fuel contributed to
great improvements in machinery. Coal, although the most powerful
factor in the more recent development of the state, has sometimes seemed
to hinder civilization through the conditions of life in the mines and
in the mining camps, through the immigration to mining regions of
workers ignorant of American institutions and ideals and especially
through the precipitation of strikes resulting from the relation of miner
and mine operator.

The picturesque streams have a large potential water power, which,
when harnessed through dams and reservoirs, will supply future neces-
sities of heat and light and of additional power required for new indus-
tries and transportation systems.

West Virginia has an unusual topography which produces great
diversity of climate and a copious rainfall. On its highest mountains
the temperature may fall to 30 degrees below zero in winter, and in
other parts of the state may rise to 96 above in summer. It is the
meeting place of two well defined systems of winds blowing in op-
posite directions. Upon its Allegheny summits and slopes, clouds from
opposite seas meet and mingle their rains. Those from the Atlantic
break against the eastern side of the barrier and often produce terrific
rains which usually do not reach the western slopes except in case of
snow storms. Those from the far western seas, carried by warm winds
from the Gulf and Caribbean or by cold winds from British Columbia,
precipitate their loads of moisture throughout the remainder of the
state. Local storms may come from any quarter. The amount of rain
varies greatly in different years. The average yearly rainfall, including
melted snow is about four feet. It is always greater west of the Alle-
ghenies and greatest near the summit.

The chief rivers of the state have their rise in Pendleton, Poca-
hontas and Randolph counties - which form the highest part of a
plateau region which covers about one-third of the state and has a
high arm which curves around toward the southwest. The New river,
which has its source in North Carolina, after flowing in a northerly
direction on the eastern side of the plateau, turns toward the west,
cuts transversely through the table-land and mingles its waters with
the Kanawha. It is especially designed by nature as a great source
of water-power which after long ages of wasted energy may be har-
nessed and utilized in the new age to turn the wheels of exploitive
industry at the command of the awakening life along its course. Prac-
tically every other river of the state also offers superior water-power
advantages which have begun to attract both private capital seeking
to seize and public interest seeking to regulate and control.

The processes recorded by geology determined ages ago what regions
of West Virginia would become fertile farm land, what would be poor;
where the coal pits would be opened; where the cement quarried; where
the navigable rivers would flow; where the streams whose steep gradi-
ents would furnish water power; what slopes and valleys would grow
the valuable forests of broadleaf trees, and what sterile flats and ridges
would furnish the pines.

All the rock formation visible on the surface of the ground in West
Virginia, and as far beneath the surface as the deepest wells and the
lowest ravines give any knowledge, were formed under water.

The entire area of the state was once the bed of an ancient sea into
which ancient rivers from a surrounding region of land poured layers
of mud, sand, and pebbles which by the pressure of ages and other
agencies became sandstone. In the deeper parts of this sea, far from
the shore, were many marine animals whose shells and skeletons were
precipitated to the bottom and by long pressure were cemented into
thick solid limestone. In shallow waters resembling swamps a rank
growth of vegetation furnished an accumulation of fallen trunks and
branches which in the course of ages beneath the water were trans-
formed into vast beds of coal whose later value made them an important
basis of industrial development.

After long ages, a large part of the bed of this sea with rocks un-
broken was elevated above the water and formed the plateau from the
highest part of which new born rivers began to cut their channels
toward the ocean. Later at different periods the mountains were formed
by shrinkings of the earth's crust causing stupendous foldings and
archings of the rocks into a series of parallel ranges whose remnants
often appearing in isolated or detached series of individual knobs still
remain after centuries of destructive erosion accompanied by the in-
cessant toil of wind, frost, and rivers, which also prepared soils suitable
for the needs of agriculture and its allied industries.

One of the great events of North American geology is the expansion of the
interior sea during Cambrian time. Early in the Cambrian period a narrow strait
extended from the region of the Gulf of St. Lawrence southwestward to Alabama.
It divided a western land area covering the Central States from an eastern
continent of unknown extent. The eastern shore of the strait was probably about
where the Appalachian Mountains now extend. The great Appalachian Valley ap-
proximately coincides with the position of the strait. During Cambrian and Silurian
time the Appalachian strait widened westward to Wisconsin and beyond the
Mississippi. It probably also expanded eastward, but there is no evidence remain-
ing of its farthest limit in that direction.

Before the widening of the Appalachian strait, in early Cambrian time, the
land to the eastward was probably somewhat mountainous.  The region of the
central States was comparatively low land. The continued activity of the agents
of erosion reduced the mountain range, whose bulk is represented in the Cambrian
sediments. Before the beginning of deposition of the great Cambro-Silurian lime-
stone the eastern land had become a low plain, whose even surface, subsiding,
permitted probably extended transgression of the sea.

Following the Cambro-Silurian limestone in the sedimentary series, there is a
mass of shale of widespread occurrence and of great thickness locally in the
Appalachian Valley.  It marks uplift of the eastern land and erosion of the
residual material, perhaps together with the Silurian sediments, then lately accu-
mulated over the surface. Thus there was toward the close of the Silurian period
a restoration of moderate elevation to the eastern land and a return of the shore
from its eastward excursion to a position approximately along the eastern margin
of the Appalachian Valley.  The changes of topography and geography from
early Cambrian time to this epoch of Silurian time have been called a first cycle
in Appalachian history.

The later Silurian sediments are of meager volume as compared with those
that preceded them, and of variable coarseness.  They represent the varying
conditions of a zone across which the shore migrated back and forth. To the
eastward lay the generally low continental area, margined by a coastal plain
which stored the coarsest detritus of the land. "Westward extended the shallow
interior sea. The migrations of the shore are marked in variations of coarseness
of the sandstones and sandy shales up to and including the Rockwood formation,
as well as by overlaps of strata, with an incomplete sequence due to erosion of the
missing members.

The moderate elevation of the eastern land had again been canceled by erosion
before the beginning of the Devonian, and the low level is recorded in the fine
shaly and calcareous deposits of the last Silurian epoch and the widespread black
shale herein called the Romney. The intermediate sandstone, the Monterey, marks
an oscillation of the shore, with contributions of sands from the coastal plain and
an overlap of later strata.

The lowlands of the early Devonian were general from New York to Georgia.
This topographic phase continued throughout the Devonian period in the region
south of Virginia.

Above Devonian strata throughout the province occur calcareous shales and
fine-grained limestones of early Carboniferous age. This gradation in sediments
from heterogeneous, coarse materials to fine silts corresponds to the similar change
from lower Cambrian sandstones to Cambro-Silurian limestone; and it marks the
degradation of the Devonian mountains to a general low level.  In the early
Carboniferous time the relations of land and sea were stable, as they had been
during much of the Cambro-Silurian periods and throughout the early Devonian.

During middle and later Carboniferous time, however, there ensued that
general vertical movement of the eastern land area and the region of the interior
sea which resulted in the withdrawal of the sea to the Mississippi embayment.
The movement was not simple; it was composed of many episodes of uplift and
subsidence, among which uplift preponderated. In the repeated oscillations of level
the sea swept back and forth over wide areas. It received from the coastal plain
the coarse quartz detritus which had accumulated during previous ages, and the
concentrated sands and pebbles in beds which alternated with materials of less
ancient derivation. The Carboniferous strata include shale and sandy shale, de-
rived more or less directly from lands of moderate elevation, and also the coal
beds, each of which marks the prolonged existence of a marsh in which peat-
making plants grew. When the marsh sank beneath the sea the peat beds were
buried beneath sands or shales, and the peat by a process of gradual distillation
became coal. At the close of the Carboniferous a great volume of varied sediments
had accumulated. It represents a correspondingly deep erosion of the land mass;

but the uplift thus indicated appears to have gone on slowly, and it may be that
the surface was not raised to the height of the mountains of to-day. The vertical
movements giving rise to variations in strata, and even to mountain ranges, appear
to have been independent of the horizontal movements which caused the folding of
the Appalachian strata. There is at least no apparent direct connection between
the two phases of earth movement.

The whole geologic history of these subsidences and elevations is written
in the rocks themselves. The time during which the process continued cannot be
measured, but it was vast ages. Nor is it known how thick the accumulation
became before the land rose from the sea the last time, and the rock building
ceased. Layers of these rocky formations, aggregating nearly two miles in thick-
ness, are visible in Grant county, and it is known that these include neither the
bottom nor the top of the series.

The oldest of these vast sheets of rock laid down in the remote past, which
directly concern West Virginia history, is visible now as the bed rock in much of
Berkeley and Jefferson counties. It is a limestone rock. It was a deep sea forma-
tion, probably; and is composed of shells and skeletons of small marine creatures
that died and sank to the 'sea bottom. They remained buried during ages, the
other layers of rock were deposited above them. Finally an upheaval raised the
mass above water. During succeeding long periods of time its overlying strata
were worn away by rain, frost, wind and ice, and the limestone was exposed. It is
exposed yet. The traveler who journeys across the lower Shenandoah Valley sees this
rock of incalculable age exposed here and there as ledges in the fields or along the
slopes of the hills. It is wearing slowly away, and its fragments form the fertile
soil which has made that part of the state famous for its fruit, wheat, cattle, and
sheep - and people also.

A newer limestone than the one in the eastern counties, covers a large
region from Greenbrier county northward, but not continuous to the Pennsylvania
line. Other regions have no limestone, but their soils are of decomposed sandstone
and shale.

During the time that the sea was advancing and receding across what is
now West Virginia, as the land was alternately elevated and lowered, there is
evidence of the breaking up and redistribution of a vast gravel bar which had lain
somewhere out of reach of the waves since earlier ages. This bar, or this aggre-
gation, whether bar or not, was made up of quartz pebbles varying in size from
a grain of sand to a cocoanut, all worn and polished as if rolled and fretted on
a beach or in turbulent mountain streams for centuries. By some means the sea
obtained possession of them and they were spread out in layers, in some places
800 feet thick, and were cemented together, forming coarse, hard rocks. We see
them along the summits of the Alleghenies, and the outlying spurs and ridges,
from the southern borders of our state to the Pennsylvania line and beyond.
The formation is called conglomerate (Pottsville conglomerate); and the popular
names are "bean rock," "millstone grit," etc. A heavy stratum of this stone
forms the floor of the coal measures. The pebbles probably represent the most
indestructible remnant of mountains, once seamed with quartz veins, but degraded
and obliterated before the middle of the Carboniferous era, perhaps long before.

Beds of coal, unlike layers of rock, are made above water, or at its immediate
surface. While the oscillation between sea and land was going on, during the
Carboniferous age, West Virginia's coal fields were being formed. Coal is made
of wood and plants of various kinds, which grew with a phenomenal luxuriance
during a long period of summer that reigned over much of the northern half of
the earth. Each bed of coal represents a swamp, large or small, in which plants
grew, fell and were buried for centuries. The whole country in which coal was
forming was probably low and it was occasionally submerged for a few thousand
years. During the submergence sand and mud settled over it and hardened into
rock. Then the land was lifted up again, and the material for another bed of
coal was accumulated. Every alternation of coal and rock marks an elevation and
subsidence of the land - the coal formed on land, the rock under water. This was
the period when the sea was advancing and receding across West Virginia as the
Carboniferous age was drawing to a close.

Land seems to have been lifted up in two ways, one a vertical movement which
elevated large areas and formed plateaus, but not mountains; the other, a hori-
zontal movement which caused folds in the strata, and these folds, if large enough,
are ranges of mountains. In some cases these folds of earth-crust rose directly
across the channel of the earlier bed of a river which in spite of the steady upward
movement, continued to cut its way across, forming a gap such as that cut by the
Potomac at Harpers Ferry, by the South Branch at Hanging Rocks, by Mill
creek at Mechanicsburg, by Pattersons creek at Greenland, by North Fork at
Hopewell, by Tygart's river at Laurel Hill in Randolph and by Cheat at Brievy
Mountain in Preston. In these instances and in many others, the long and inces-
sant struggle of the rivers has wrought a grandness and picturesqueness of wild
scenery too little appreciated in the earlier struggle for possession and the later
reckless race for riches.

In different parts of the state, but particularly in Hampshire, Hardy, Grant
and Pendleton counties, many passes, popularly known as "gaps," have been cut
through mountains by creeks and rivers which flow through them. Among some
of the best known are the following in Hampshire county: At the site of the old
chain bridge, a few miles above the mouth of the South Branch; at Hanging Rocks,
four miles below Romney where the same mountain is again cut by the South
Branch; two miles above Eomney where Mill creek has made a pass through Mill
Creek Mountain; sixteen miles east of Romney where a small stream flows through
North Mountain; the passage being known as Blue's gap. The passage of the
South Branch through a mountain between Petersburg and Moorefield is well
known. Six miles above Petersburg in Grant county the north fork has made a
passage through New Creek Mountain. Similar passages exist through the same
range, excavated by small streams which appear totally unable to do so vast a
work. These gaps are known as Reel's, Kline's, Sosner's and Greenland. Many
such passes exist in Pendleton county, but they are usually smaller than those
named. One of the best known is Greenawalt gap near Upper Tract; and another
is Judah's. These passageways through mountains record remarkable geological
histories. Each has been excavated by the stream which now flows .through it and
which was there before the mountain was formed. The streams were flowing in
the same general courses which they now pursue before the particular mountains
came into existence. Slowly the underground forces exerted sufficient pressure to
fold the layers of rock and cause them to rise in the form of an arch directly
across the channel of the stream. The mountain was at first only an undulation, a
swell in the ground; directly across it the stream continued to flow, cutting the
channel deeper as the fold of rocks rose higher. The mountain gradually lifted
itself up from the interior of the earth but with such exceeding slowness that the
stream, acting like a saw, was able to keep the notch cut deep enough for a
channel. It sawed the gap down as the mountain rose, the two movements being
exactly equal.  Some of the gapped mountains in West Virginia have elevated
their summits a thousand feet or more, but the stream has during all the immense
period of years sawed away and kept its channel open, and it continues still to
saw asunder the ledges which lie bare in the bottom of its channel. It is a process
which has gone on for many hundreds of thousands of years, and apparently the
forces are as active now as ever. The rivers are cutting deeper and perhaps the
mountains are rising higher.

A person passing through one of these gaps can see the exposed ledges which
form the mountain, bending as an enormous arch, the top of which is hundreds
of feet overhead, while the sides bend down and pass beneath the level of the
stream. Sometimes only a fragment of the arch is visible, the rest being buried
under accumulation of debris. The best gaps to observe are the Hanging Rocks,
below Romney; Greenland gap, near Maysville, and Kline's gap, near the source
of Lunice creek. The last two are in Grant county, the first in Hampshire.

These deep passes through mountains arc not of interest merely as curiosities,
or as freaks of nature, though as such they are very instructive; but they are of
great use for the passage of highways. Roads pass through nearly all of them,
and thus cross mountains without being compelled to climb over the summits.
The most titanic piece of mountain cutting in West Virginia, by which a stream
has been able to wear itself a channel through ranges, is in the ease of New river.
That stream rises east of the whole Allegheny range of mountains, and has cut
its way through them all to the west side. The best known and most spectacular
mountain pass in the state cut by a river that is older than the range it has
sawed asunder, is the gap through the Blue Ridge at Harper's Perry.

The phenomenon of streams cutting gaps or passage ways transversely through
mountains, as at Hanging Rocks and Greenland gap, does not stand alone as
wonders which West Virginia rivers have been responsible for. There are a number
of places in the state where river channels have been cut through mountains from
end to end, deepening and widening those channels until what otherwise would
be one mountain is now two. One such instance is the Trough, through which
the South Branch of the Potomac flows below Old Fields in Hardy county. The
geographic and geological evidence indicates that this fact was accomplished in
much the same way as the gaps already described were cut. Apparently the river
was flowing in the same course which it now flows, at a time when the mountain
had not been lifted out of the earth. When the folding of the strata began to
raise the backbone of the mountain above the surface, it happened that the crest
of the mountain rose directly under the channel of the stream. The upheaval was
so slow that the river was able to cut its channel deeper as the mountain rose
higher, with the result that it sawed the mountain asunder from end to end and
now pours along the narrow gorge it has made. Another striking example is
Tygart's Valley in Randolph county. A trough forty miles in length has been
excavated along the summit of a mountain, and this trough has been worn down
and widened until it is now one of the most attractive valleys of the state. Its
floor lies more than two thousand feet above sea level, and the walls of the valley - 
Cheat mountain on one side and Rich mountain on the other - rise nearly two
thousand feet higher than the valley floor. The two mountains which now form
the opposite walls of the valley and whose summits are ten miles apart, air line,
are but the worn flanks of what was once one mountain. It was a vast fold
of strata, and if restored to its original dimensions it would rise to a height of
five thousand feet above the present valley.

The manner of the formation of this remarkable valley was simple, though
unusual. The evidence of the rocks that remain show that the mountain was an
enormous arch of folded strata, the spread of the arch being not less than ten
miles, and its height at least a mile. While the subterranean energy was lifting
the mountain, the strain was so great that the arch was ruptured. A crack was
formed longitudinally along the top. Running water took possession of this crack
along the mountain summit and followed it northward, and gradually deepened and
widened it into a valley. The work of the stream was facilitated by the softness
of the Hamilton shales which it excavated. The extensive valley thus formed was
made rich by the decay of the soft shale. The valley is forty miles long with a
flat bottom from one quarter of a mile to more than a mile in width.  From
Elkins to Elkwater it contains some of the finest farms in the state. It attracted
some of the earliest white settlers to the state.  Apparently it attracted the
Indians at a much earlier day whose remains may still be seen. In the early
stages of the civil war, it became a battle ground of contending forces in the
struggle for possession of West Virginia. On one rim of the valley the battle of
Eich Mountain was fought. On another rim, the battle of Laurel Hill was staged,
and on the floor of the valley, at Elkwater General Lee was checked in his effort
to recover ground lost to General McClellan several months before.

There is conclusive evidence that, in comparatively late geologic
time, even while this territory had much the same appearance topo-
graphically as it has to-day, the arrangement of the streams was very
different from the present. At that time the tributaries of Kanawha
river were Mud and Guyandot rivers, Twelvepole creek, and possibly
a small stream that occupied the valley of the present Ohio river above
the mouth of Guyandot river. When Kanawha river was diverted to
its present course, Teays valley was left to the former tributaries of
that stream. Mud river entered the valley near Milton and followed
it to Barboursville, where it united with the Guyandot and a short
distance beyond reached Ohio river. In attempting to adjust itself to
the new conditions Mud river meandered broadly over the wide valley
of the Kanawha. Its sluggish character continues to the present day,
as indicated by its name, even though it has succeeded in removing the
alluvium and is now cutting into the rock floor of the old Kanawha
valley.

The careful study of the stream valleys by geologists has proved
almost beyond question that the courses of the rivers in this section
were different before the Glacial period, from the present. At that
time the Ohio river did not exist, and the drainage of the southern part
of this state was to the west to about the position of the present Ohio
and thence northwest across Ohio. The northern drainage along the
Monongahela valley was north to Pittsburgh and to the present site
of Lake Erie. The streams thus flowed north and northwest.

As the great glacier moved down from the north across the present
Great Lakes area, it cut off the outlets of these rivers with a wall of
ice and rock debris, the waters were thus dammed back filling the river
valleys almost, if not quite, to thew sources. The waters spread out
between the walls of the valleys, forming lakes of quiet water with
small currents, in which were deposited sediments from the surrounding
hills, and from the melting ice. One of these lakes occupying the val-
let of the Monongahela, lower Allegheny, and upper Ohio basins has 
been named by Dr. I. C. White, Lake Monongahela. The water would
rise until it found a gap in the surrounding hills through which it
could escape. In the Monongahela lake this gap seems to be located
near Salem on the present line of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad from
Grafton to Parkersburg. The overflow passing through this gap grad-
ually lowered the waters. With the outflow at this point a current
would be formed in the lake thus carrying the sediment from the north
through the whole valley. The fine grained clays adapted to brick and
pottery manufacture are now found in this valley 100 to 150 feet above
the present river. The terraces representing long continued -water levels
are marked topographical features today in this valley and the various
towns are located on them.

At this same time similar changes were taking place in the southern
valleys. The ancient Kanawha river was flowing through the Teays
valley to Huntington and thence to the northwest through a river named
by Tight, the Marietta river. When the ice sheet closed the outlet of
this river, the waters were held back, forming a lake similar to the
northern one, which may be called Lake Kanawha.

In this basin were deposited the fine grained, banded, Teays clays, 20
to 50 feet in thickness. The rising water in this lake finally flowed out
in which Pawpaw is now located. The river also undoubtedly once
flowed over the low divide, across the neck of land south of Little
Orleans, which is partly covered with river gravel, but the rock revealed
beneath the gravel by the Western Maryland Railway cut demonstrates
that if this short cut was abandoned owing to the channel being filled
with alluvium, in the same way that the change in the Purslane oxbow
is explained, the early channel was not cut as deep as the present
river bed.

A very interesting oxbow-cut-off is in process of formation at
Johnson's Mill on Sleepy creek, 5 miles south of Berkeley Springs.
The creek formerly flowed in the swampy alluvium-filled valley south
of its present course.

In other parts of the state, there are many examples of streams
which have been turned aside from their original channels by the long
chiseling processes of time. One example of this is found in Barbour
County. Indian Fork of Elk, and all the tributaries of Elk above the
mouth of Indian Fork formerly emptied into the Valley river a short
distance above Philippi. They now reach the West Fork at Clarksburg.
By consulting a map it will be seen that Indian Fork and the main
stream of the Elk have their sources five or six miles west of the Val-
ley river, and that they flow eastwardly, directly toward the river until
they approach within a short distance of it, and then, as Indian Pork
and Elk unite, they turn back toward the west-northwest, and flow in
a direction almost opposite to the former course and reach the West
Fork at Clarksburg. Thus, the streams which once were tributaries of
the Valley river are now tributaries of Elk. They are what geologists
call "captive watercourses."  The process by which Elk was able to cut
them off and divert them from their former channels is easily under-
stood when a few facts concerning the geological history of the region
between Philippi and Clarksburg are taken into consideration. The
inquiry takes us back many thousand years and deals only with well-
established geological truths written in the contour and sculpture of
the region as it now exists.

During one of the later periods of geology, long after the close
of the Carboniferous age, the country between Philippi and Clarksburg,
as well as on all sides round, was more nearly level than now. Then
the bed of the river at Philippi and the bed of the West Fork at Clarks-
burg were practically at the same altitude above the sea, and were both
probably lower than they are now. Today the river at Philippi is
nearly 400 feet higher than the West Fork at Clarksburg. At the time,
the divide between the waters of the West Fork and those of the Valley
river was as far west as Elk City, or probably farther west. A change
took place, however, which has pushed the divide eastward until now it
is in several places within a mile of the bed of the Valley river, and
in some places not half a mile distant.

This change is a result of a tilting of the region. An uplift raised
the country along the Valley river several hundred feet and tilted it
toward the northwest. Thus, the streams tributary to the West Fork
were made to flow down a steeper incline. They began to cut deeper
channels because of the increased power given by their steeper gradients.
As they deepened their gorges they wore the divide back toward the
east, encroaching rapidly upon the headwaters of the streams emptying
into the Valley river. At that time Elk was a shorter stream than now.
Its source was at the divide near Elk City. But it deepened its chan-
nel and lengthened its course by cutting through the old divide and
pushing the new watershed further and further east until today it has
approached in places within less than a mile of Valley river. It inter-
cepted creeks flowing east. Its deeper gorge cut across their courses
and diverted their water toward the west. Indian Fork was first cut
off and then Mutton Run, or (as it is called in its lower course) Elk.
All the headwaters of Elk creek formerly flowed into the Valley river.
Those who look for the old channel by which those creeks reached
the river must bear in mind that an immense period of time must be
taken into account. However, there is strong evidence and much prob-
ability for locating it through the wide gap in the divide on the farm of
Jacob Shank, about three miles southwest of Philippi, in that region
called "Flatwood." The flatness of the region is due to the fact that
it occupies the old valley through which Indian Fork and the upper
tributaries of Elk once flowed on their way to the Valley river. This
old valley (now on top of a mountain) has been much cut and dis-
figured by gullies, ravines and brooks which have destroyed what was
once a level valley floor; but even yet the general level appeals at once
to the eye when seen from such distance that the local irregularities are
obscured.

Other instances of the capture of portions of the drainage of one
river basin by streams of another found in the neighboring region.
Glady Fork and Spruce Fork, in Upshur County, formerly emptied
into the Buckhannon river, but they have been cut o& and diverted by
the encroaching channel of Stone Coal creek, and now follow that stream
to the West Fork at Weston. Another instance is found further south,
where Laurel Creek, Cow Run and Get Out Run, formerly tributaries
of French creek, emptying into the Buckhannon, have been intercepted
by streams emptying into the Little Kanawha. The same tilting of the
region toward the northwest which caused Elk creek to cut back nearly
to the Valley river, was also responsible for the encroaching of Stone
Coal creek and the sources of the Little Kanawha upon the waters of
the Buckhannon.

The entire region was picturesque and rich in vast and varied re-
sources which largely remained untouched for over a century after the
Indian trails of the wild region of sombre shadows and healthy climate
first attracted the advance guard of pioneer settlers. In spite of the
general roughness of surface, the soil was valuable, adapted either to
various purposes of agriculture or to stock raising and was capable of
large returns under improved methods of cultivation. There were iron
ores which formed the basis of earlier active industries, and an abundance
of coal, oil and gas, fire-clays, sandstones and glass sands formed the
later basis for prosperous conditions felt by the entire region. There
was also a wealth of woods, which after remaining largely undisturbed
for over a century, has recently been almost depleted in most sections
by a system of exploitation which has left in its desolate path nothing
more important than the problem of conservation.

Before the westward invasion of white settlers the ancient ridges
between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny plateau formed a great wilder-
ness rampart which forced the medley population of tidewater Vir-
ginia in a useful unity and neighborly community life, under the an-
cestral tutorship of the wide sea, which proved of great value in the
later struggle for independence from Europe and in the establishment
of the nation. The explorer finding a gap was always confronted by
other ridges of mountains, and following the channel cut by the Potomac
he was soon confronted by the mazy wilderness and other obstacles to
entrance into the mountain belt beyond. The education of mountain
and forest came later.

By its physical formation the trans-Allegheny territory included in
West Virginia was destined to be geographically distinct from the tide-
water region of the Old Dominion. The flow of its rivers toward the
Ohio largely determined its commercial connections after the abandon-
ment of the earlier transportation by pack-horses. Even the eastward
flow of the Potomac eventually determined its commercial relation
with Baltimore instead of with points in eastern Virginia - a relation
which through the influence of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in the
crisis which precipitated the formation of West Virginia determined the
extension of its eastern panhandle to Harpers Ferry. Even the more
direct route of communication between the Kanawha and the James
rivers, presented obstacles which delayed the completion of an adequate
avenue of transportation until after the separation of the new state was
accomplished.

The second quarter of the eighteenth century marked the beginning
of a longitudinal overflow movement southward and westward by ad-
vance up the Shenandoah from the western edge of the fertile lands
of Pennsylvania. Among these pioneers, following the earliest con-
tingents of Germans, were the Scotch-Irish - Scotch in blood, Irish
by adoption and Presbyterian in religion - who largely populated West
Virginia and won their way into Kentucky and to the farthest West.
The Appalachian barrier was finally crossed by the overflow from the
East. By 1773 the tides of life began to flow toward Pittsburgh which,
by the strange geological changes resulting from the ice invasion of
long ago diverting the ancient river system which had its headwaters
in West Virginia, was the natural gateway to the Ohio and the West
at which centered various lines of migration from Virginia, Maryland
and Pennsylvania. From the upper Shenandoah and the upper James
there was a smaller expansion to the middle New river region.

EARLY TRAILS

On the eve of its settlement by white men, the territory of western
Virginia was the hunting ground of tribes of Delaware, Shawnese and
Mingo Indians whose permanent settlements or villages were located
in Pennsylvania near the confluence of the Monongahela and the Alle-
gheny. Since 1713 they had occupied the region as tenants of the
Iroquois of New York who claimed the ownership. From the valley of
Virginia to the Ohio river they used various trails which later served as
the earliest paths of the pioneers.

One of the most eastern trails was the Virginia Warriors Path which
became a traders and explorers route ascending the Shenandoah valley
to the head of Clinch, thence passing through Cumberland Gap via
the site of "Crab Orchard," Kentucky, and Danville, Kentucky, to the
falls of the Ohio (Louisville).

Several trails connecting with the region drained by the Mononga-
hela were distinctly marked. Westward from the Virginia and Maryland
routes of travel which converged on the Potomac at Wills creek was a
transmontane trail which crossed upper Youghiogheny at "Little Cross-
ings" (Great Meadows) and the main Youghiogheny at "Stewart's
Crossing" (Connellsville) thence down the "Point" to the site of Pitts-
burgh.

Another was the old Catawba war-path between New York and
the Holston river leading also through the Carolinas (not an Indian
thoroughfare after white settlements were made in Virginia). This
path crossed the Cheat at the mouth of Grassy Run near the Monongalia-
Preston boundary line and farther south passed up the Tygart's valley.
Another, the Warrior branch passed up Dunkard creek and via Fish
creek to southern Ohio and Kentucky. Another, the Eastern trail
(Great War Path) from Ohio via Fish creek and Indian creek and
White Day creek through Preston county (near the site of Masontown
and Reedsville and crossing Cheat at Dunkard Bottom) to the South
Branch of the Potomac - a route much used by the Ohio Indians in their
attacks on the white settlements. A branch starting between Masontown
and Reedsville passed southward between Independence and Newburg
via York's run and south of Evansville to Ice's mill on Big Sandy where
it met the Northwest trail from Maryland via the bridge at Deakin's
on Cheat. Another trail led from Maryland via Big Sandy near Bruce-
ton (Preston county) and via Cheat to the vicinity of Morgantown.

Another important Indian route of travel was the Scioto-Mononga-
hela trail which, after crossing from Lower Shawnee Town eastward to
the Muskingum valley and from Big Rock (near Roxbury, Ohio) south-
east via the watershed to the mouth of the Little Kanawha (Belpre,
Ohio) and after a junction with another trail from the mouth of the
Kanawha and the lower Scioto valley, crossed the Ohio and ran near
the old "Neal's station" (now Ewing's station on the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad) north of the present Kanawha station and above Eaton's
tunnel, thence via Dry Ridge to Doddridge county, passing through
Martin's Woods, north of Greenwood to Centre station thence east to
West Union tunnel (Gorham's) thence to the head of Middle Island
creek up Toms fork to the watershed in Harrison county and down Ten
Mile creek into the Monongahela valley. There was also a trail from the
Ohio up the Kanawha and across the mountains to Randolph county.

Along the north side of the Kanawha passed the Sandusky-Richmond
trail and important branch of the Scioto trail, the principal "war path"
and trade path of the Shawanese country and the main route of the
Sandusky-Virginian fur trade ascending the Sandusky valley from Lake
Erie and descending the Scioto to the mouth at Lower Shawnee Town
and southward as "Warriors Path" through Kentucky to Cumberland
Gap and the Cherokee country. It reached the mouth of the Kanawha
over the highland watershed between the Scioto and the Hockhocking
rivers by a southeast route from a point on the Scioto above Chillicothe,
at the intersection of the Scioto-Beaver trail and a trail to Fort Miami
connecting with the Miami trail which passed through Licking and the
Kentucky river valleys to the watershed between the Green and the
Cumberland, thence by two branches - one through the Cumberland
mountains to the Cherokee country and the other through Cumberland
Gap to the Scioto trail.

The trails leading from the Ohio east were well known to the early
settlers who aften posted scouts on them near the Ohio to report the
approach of Indian war parties.

Indian trail and buffalo trace pointed the easiest way for fur trader
and pioneer settler across mountain barrier into the unbroken wilder-
ness drained by the Monongahela. The country gradually became known
by reports of hunters and traders who crossed from very early times.
Nemacolin's path, following in part an old buffalo trail across the moun-
tains, furnished a pack horse route for traders who had already reached
the Ohio before 1750. The blazing of this old Indian trail by Nemacolin
and other Indians under direction of Cresap, acting for the Virginia
gentlemen who had received 100,000 acres of land drained by the Ohio,
precipitated a decisive war to settle the mastership of the western forests.
This little westward path, marked by Indians axe, became a path for
Saxon commerce and consequently a path for Saxon conquest leading to
the realization of the earliest dreams of the youthful Virginian who
while traveling over it in 1752 was already planning a highway to bind
the East and the West. It was later widened into a wagon road by
Washington and Braddock and became an important highway to the
lower Monongahela - although the first wagon load of merchandise over
it did not reach the Monongahela until 1789.

Farther south, crossing a wilderness mountain region over which
no roads were constructed for a century after the early era of settlement
of the region drained by the upper Monongahela, were four other trails
of no less importance for settlers of the region drained by the upper
tributaries of the Monongahela. The McCullough traders' trail led from
Moorefield via Patterson's creek and Greenland Gap across a spur of
the Alleghenies to the North Branch thence to the upper Youghiogheny
(west of Oakland) thence (via Bruceton Mills) to the Cheat near the
Pennsylvania line. A branch of it led down Horse Shoe run to the
mouth of Lead Mine run. The other three were more obscure. The
North Branch trail, over which came the larger number of the early
settlers on upper Cheat and many on the Buckhannon river and which
probably was the route of the Indians who conducted raids in Hamp-
shire county in 1754 to 1759, continued from Fairfax stone across Back-
bone mountain and down Lead Mine run and Horse Shoe run to Cheat
river - connecting here with an up-river branch to the vicinity of Parsons
and via the head of Leading creek to the Seneca trail at Elkins and to
the settlements of the Tygart valley, at the head of which it connected
with trails to the Little Kanawha, the Elk and the Greenbrier. The trail
to Greenbrier passed through Mingo Plats and west of the present
Marlinton pike crossed the mountain - dividing at the top of Middle
mountain into two branches, one of which continued to Old Field Fork
and the other to Clover Lick. The Shawnee (or Seneca) trail, although
the chief highway between the South branch and Tygart valley, travelled
westward yearly by pack horses laden with salt, iron and other merchan-
dise and later by many droves of cattle driven to the eastern market,
ascended the South Branch (passing the McCullough trail at Moorefield)
followed the North Pork and Seneca creek, crossed the Alleghenies
twenty miles south of the North Branch trail, and the branches of Cheat
above the mouth of Horse Camp creek, and passed near Elkins and
Beverly to the vicinity of Huttonsville in Randolph.

Another path, connecting with the old Shawnee trail from Pennsyl-
vania and Maryland from the head of North Fork and following the
general course of the later Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, passed
up the South Branch to the mouth of North Fork (in Grant county)
which it followed to the mouth of Dry run (in Pendleton county), then
followed Laurel creek to the site of the later crossing of the Staunton
and Parkersburg pike, then turned westward, crossed the Alleghenies
thirty miles south of the Seneca trail, followed the East Fork of the
Greenbrier to the main river, crossed Shaver's mountain to the Shaver's
Fork of Cheat, thence crossing Cheat mountain to Tygart's valley, inter-
secting the Shawnee trail near Huttonsville and crossing to the head of
the Little Kanawha which it followed to the Ohio. Two other trails may
be noticed. One led from the headwaters of the South Branch via the
Sinks of Gandy, to Shaver's Fork of Cheat river at the mouth of Fishing-
Hawk, and across Cheat mountain via the heads of Files creek to Valley
Bend (above Beverly). Another led from the Great Kanawha up the
Elk and Valley Fork and down Elk: Water to Tygart's valley - a meeting
place of so many trails and probably a favorite hunting ground of the
Indians.

An old well known Indian trail, originally a buffalo trail and later
used by settlers till 1786 passed from the Kanawha up Kelley's creek
thence down Bell creek and down Twenty Mile to its mouth (now Belva)
up Gauley to a point over a mile north of Rich creek up which it me-
andered and thence passed over Gauley mountain through the site of
Ansted and across the branches of Meadow creek to the upper waters of
Muddy, an affluent of the Greenbrier. Over this trail many of the earliest
settlers twisted. It was used for the outward trip of Lewis' army in 1774
and was followed by the Indian invaders who attacked Donnally's fort
in 1778. The Gauley river route farther northeast also lead to the
heads of the Greenbrier. The chief old trail of the Indians and early
settlers from Lewisburg to the Ohio ran along the ridges at the heads
of the tributaries of the Great Kanawha, crossing Paint creek near its
source. It was a mere passage way for foot travel through the wilder-
ness - although over much of it one could ride horseback. It was used
considerably for early travel.

The trail up Dunlap and down Second and Indian creeks to New river
determined the early favored points of settlement in Monroe in the Gap
Mills valley and the basin of Indian creek. It was joined by side paths.
Another path crossed Peters mountain at Symmes Gap and passed near
Ballard and down Stinking creek to the mouth of Indian creek. The
Dunlap path was used by many immigrants from the Cowpasture, Calf-
pasture and Bullpasture valleys. The trails across Peters mountain and
the Narrows of the New were the routes of settlers who came down from
the upper James and Roanoke and the New.

The western Indian trail around the narrows of the Great Kanawha
led from the Kanawha up Paint creek, thence via the site of Beckley over
the northeast extension of Flat Top mountain, and across the New river
above the mouth of the Bluestone.

Among other trails was one via Horse Pen creek to the head of Clear
Fork, down Tug, to the mouth of Four Pole, thence across the ridge
between the Sandy and the Guyandotte. An early hunters' trail from
the Greenbrier-New river section to Kentucky passed up East river via
Bluefield, the Bluestone-Glinch divide, and the Clinch and Powell's river.