Rev. 07/14/02
Yankee Land - West Virginia + 7/12/02
Wheeling, WV - Carriage House Glass Museum at Oglebay Park — 07012/02
We drove from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, WV (about 1 hr west of Pitttsburgh) and out to the Oglebay Glass Museum. There we had a chance to see John, the glass blower, create a small candy dish. We were amazed at his skill creating a work of art from raw molten glass.
The first step was to pick up a glob of molten glass on the end of a blow pipe. He told us the glass had a consistency similar the honey — he had to keep turning the blow pipe to keep the blob of glass from dripping off. His next step was to roll it across some chips of colored glass he had laid out on a special table — reheat the glass in a furnace that reached 2500 degrees, then rolled the molten glass in the colored chips again — this would be the source of the color in the dish. This reheating occurred several times throughout the glass making process. Next he pulled the colored bands down with a pick, creating a series of "vertical swooshs". He blew air into the pipe, creating the bowl shape. Then rolled the molten glass in a cherry wood "cup" that had been soaking in water, in order to give the dish it's round shape. He then removed the pipe from the dish, reattached the pipe to what would become the bottom of the dish and started shaping the neck. When he was satisfied with the shape, he cooled the pipe bowl connection in an air stream. Then tapping the blow pipe, this bowl separated from the pipe. The last step was to reheat the bottom with an acetelin torch and imprint his signature stamp. Turning it over with a pair of paddles — he showed us his finished work. The finished product then went into a kiln to slowly cool for 24 hours.
We were so impressed with his work, we asked if it were for sale. He said yes and we bought it.
That afternoon we came back to ask him how a paper weight with a flower in it was created. His answer was — stick around and he would show us. We were both amazed at how simple it was for an expert — a glob of glass, stick it on a flower mold with colored glass in it — sandwich it with another glob of glass from the kiln — poke it with a pick in the right places to draw lines and create bubbles. There it was, a finish work of art. Yes, we bought it too.
Moundsville,
WV - Grave Creek Mound — 07/12/02
From
Wheeling we headed for Moundsville, location of the Grave Creek Mound.
The Adena people created these burial mounds, not just up and down the Ohio Valley, but from the Atlantic to the Mississippi Valley. The Grave Creek Mound is is 69 feet high and has always been a prominent feature in the Moundsville area. The Adena people lived in the West Virginia area from about 1000 BC to approximately 1 AD.
A later, more advanced group of mound builders, the Hopewell, lived in the Ohio Valley until about 700 AD.. Other mound building cultures continued until the arrival of the Europeans.
The
Delt Norona Museum, adjacent to the Grave Creek Mound, has an excellent display
of artifacts of the Adena people. There are several displays that include
dioramas of the building of the mound and the village where the Adena lived.
In 1838 a recorded excavation of the mound was conducted. Two shafts, one vertical and one horizontal, were created. Two burial sites were discovered, which provided a greater incite into the culture of the mound builders.
Parkersburg, WV — 07/13/02
The next morning we started driving down the Ohio River. The
further we drove, the harder it rained. Parkersburg recorded 2 inches
of rain that day — almost needed floatation gear to cross streets.
In Parkersburg we found the West Virginia Oil Museum. The museum has a great collection of oil artifacts, including models of wells and bits for drilling, but is not well organized. They do have a good video of the history of oil in West Virginia.
The oil in the area was so abundant that it seep from the ground and filled up indentations in the soil. The indians were the first to use oil for medicinal purposes, lighting, weapons, and as a basis for their war paint. The indians showed it to the early explorers. George Washington, who surveyed the area in the 1740's, was one of the first to see that oil would have a future use. In 1771 he purchased property in Virginia (now West Virginia). This property he later turned over to the state.
It is documented that by 1836 some of the settlers skimmed oil from ponds and streams and sold it for lubricating machinery and lighting — the first commercial use of oil. The first drilled well occurred in 1861, using similar techniques to those of the salt drillers and the 1854 drilled oil well in Pennsylvania.
And "Red," —- West Virginia is second to Texas in oil production, and 11th in natural natural gas production.
We considered going to Blennerhassett Island, by a paddle wheeler,
but it was still raining too hard. The story of this island, the
Blennerhassetts and Aron Burr is an interesting part of our history. But
we'll have to let it wait for a sunny day.
Leaving the paddle wheeler dock we passed a plaque mounted in the wall of the dike. It read that this was where "Stonewall" Jackson's grandfather's home stood. He was born there when his mother was visiting her father. The plaque went on to say that at the first battle of Bull Run (must have been written by a damned yankee — a southerner would have called it first Manassis), General Bee cried "There stands Jackson like a stone wall, rally behind him." This ralling cry brought the Confederates a victory, and Jackson his nickname.
To get out of the rain, we headed on down the Ohio to Point Pleasant, WV — Washington, during his surveying, had described the site as a pleasant point — hence its name.
We went out to Tu-Endie-Wei or "point
between two waters" (confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers) site of the
Point Pleasant Battle Monument. Here the day long battle between
the Virginia rifleman and the indians (led by Shawnee chief Cornstalk) took
place. Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, initiated the fight to turn
frontiersmen against the Indians in order to their divert attention and
involvement in the growing Revolutionary cause. The frontiersmen were
victorios, inspite of Lord Dunsmore reneging on promised reeforcements.
Considered a landmark in frontier history, some consider this to be the "first battle of the Revolution." This action broke the power of the indians in the Ohio Valley and quelled a general indian war on the frontier. It also prevented an alliance between the British and the indians which may have altered the outcome of the Revolutionary War. The ensuing peace between frontiersmen and the indians allowed the frontiersmen to cross the Allegheny Mountains to fight in the war.
Chief Cornstalk is buried on the site of the battle. As is Ann Hennis Trotter Baily, "Mad Ann Baily," who's first husband was killed during the battle. She was determined for revenge. She dressed in men's clothes, became very skill with a rifle and as a rider. She is said to have saved the garrison at Fort Lee from massacre when she raced to Fort Savannah, in the Lewisburg hills, to get ammunition for the fort. She also began an one women express service delilvering mail and goods. Because of these feats and her fearlessness the indians gave her the name "Mad Ann".
Down
Into Kentucky — 07/14/02
Next morning the weather was a bit clearer, so we headed down into Kentucky. Williamson, WV lies on the border between West Virginia and Kentucky. We'd heard about a "Coal House" so turned off to find it. Sure enough, the Chamber of Commerce building is built out of 65 tons of coal. The coal was contributed by five local coal companies.
This part of the boarder is very hilly, roads twisting and turning, climbing and descending hills. The huge cuts made in the hills for the road, some appear to be a thousand feet deep, hardly reduce the steep grades.
At Jenkins, KY we stopped to see if I could trace down and old friend from fifty years ago — now have a phone number, see if I can make the connection.
The weather had improved so we drove back up, on "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," to West Virginia.
Charleston, WV — 07/15/02
The
West Virginia State Capitol building, with its gold dome, is impressive.
And the story of where and how the Capitol move from place to place is a
story of politics at its best — or worst, depending on which point of
view.
High
in the dome of the Capitol, 180 feet above the floor, is a mammoth
2 ton crystal chandelier, made up of 10,000 Czechoslovakian crystals,
with 96 light bulbs, weighing 2 tons, 180 feet above the floor, and is 8
feet in diameter. Every four years it is slowly lowered to the the
floor, takes about fours hours, to be cleaned and all bulbs changed. This
occurres just before the inauguration of the Governor.
The Senate and the House, each have a similar but smaller chandelier — 8,000 crystals and 100 bulbs — bright enough to help light each chamber.
Each chamber
is quite impressive. But a geek noticed that in the House each member
had a lap top computer, but none in the Senate — older and a different
generation?
In
front of the Capitol is a statue of Lincoln wearing a robe, stooped in deep
thought. The statue is titled "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight,"
taken from the poem by Vachel Lindsay. Lincoln made West Virginia a
state(1863) by proclamation — the only state so created.
In
the museum next to the Capitol is a huge block of coal — West Virginia
is noted for its coal mines — coal is not something my grandkids are
familiar with. Even today it is the base for much of its economy.
And today the Legislature is in special session to resolve issues on
the transportation of coal.
That noon we stopped at Sushi Atlantic, a block from the hospital, for lunch — it is owned and run by Haruke Sugawara, excellent sushi, excellent Japanese food. Stop there if you get a chance.
From Charleston we headed south-east for the New River Gorge. The road following up the Kanawha River is a beautiful drive with waterfalls and great vistas along the route.
At the
New River Gorge bridge, a great arch supported span crosses the gorge. The
arch is 856 feet from the bottom of the gorge to the bottom of the arch —
as high as 1 Washington Monument, plus 2 Status of Liberty. The steep
drive down and then back up the other side is no longer needed to cross the
river. We walked down 200 feet, level with the bottom of the arch,
to take this picture. Then, on a very hot humid day, we had the 200
feet to walk back up — puff, puff, puff ..........
New River Gorge area, then on to Greenbrier — 07/17/02
As we traveled through West Virginia it was very apparent (lots of coal mine shafts) that the economy of the state was based on not only oil and natural gas but also coal. We were in the very heart of the bituminous coal region. Bituminous coal mined in this region is very high grade and produces less smoke when burned.
We decided to be typical tourists and take a tour coal mine. The town of Beckley, the center of southern West Virginia's bituminous region, had purchased land for a park. While developing the park the town found an entrance to a coal mine, which had not been worked since 1911. Beckley bought the mine from a coal company for one dollar. The mine was brought up to safety standards and renovated to accommodate tourists through donations and support of coal companies in the area. Every morning before the tours begin the Fire Boss goes through the mine and checks for methane gas and damp black, which depletes the air of oxygen. At every stop in the mine the date and the person doing the inspection is noted on a slate board. The pictures below tell a bit about the mine and a piece of coal taken from it.
Special cars have been made for the tour through tunnels, whose height is about 6 feet — much higher then tunnels in working mines of the late 1800 to early 1900s. Don, the man conducting the tour had been a miner for 17 years. The seam of coal (shown in the second picture) is about 30 to 36 inches thick. In the early years of mining a miner had to lie on his abdomen and using pick and shovel excavate the coal, shovel it into a very low, "one ton" coal car. The miner had to produce 10 cars of coal each day no matter how long it took. For his labors he received $0.20 a car load. The miner had to have his own tools and he had to purchase, from the coal company the wood, that was used for supporting his mine shaft as well as the tracks for the coal car. He was also responsible for putting in the supports and building the tracks. A one wheeled "skate board" like conveyance was used by the miner to travel, on his stomach, from the mine entrance to his particular work sight. About 22 miners worked each shift. Third picture, Don is demonstrating a carbide lamp, the type used in the early days of mining. The lamp lasted about 3 hours then had to be refilled. When the lamp went out it was pitch black — Bob took a picture of this, but didn't include it as it was just all black. The second row, first picture is the lunch pail each miner took with him — bottom bucket contained about 1/2 gal of water to drink (the only water available to him during his long work day), second tray his lunch, and third tray desert (if he was lucky). Center picture is looking down the tunnel, and the last when we started moving.
The Beckly Exhibition Coal Mine has brought to the site structures that were used throughout West Virginia. The pictures are of the exterior of the building and one room in each of the structures. The first picture is the miners church, the second a single miners one room house. The next row, the house of a miner with a family (which cost him $2.00 a month). It was a three room house, living room, kitchen, and one bedroom — regardless of how many kids they had. Each miner's house was repleat with an outhouse. And the last, the superintendents house, quite a mansion. There was also a one room school house (of which we did not get a picture) — the last coal mine school house closed in 1965.
After the tour we headed down a twisting road to the bottom
of the gorge. The one lane bridge (shared with the railroad) goes to
Thurmond depot where several tracks from existing coal mines converge. It
is now one of 4 visitors centers. The New River, with rafters, is
seen through the haze of a very hot humid day.
We continued driving along the river, paralleling the every present railroad tracks. We crossed the river again on one bridge while the railroad used it's own bridge which feeds into a tunnel to cut off a sharp bend in the river.
We left the river and headed cross country via very tortuous
roads to White Sulfur Springs, a health resort dating to 1778. It was
named after its mineral springs. The original spring is on the grounds
of the Greenbrier Hotel.
During
the early part WW-II the hotel was used to house Axis diplomats until they
could be exchanged for American diplomats, captured in foreign counties.
It later became a military hospital. There is also a facility
constructed, under one of the wings, during the war to house vital members
of the US government in case of an attack.
In 1948 the facility opened again as a luxury hotel. The dirty Roadtrek did look a bit out of place amidst polished and gleaming Mercedes, Jaguars, and an occasional Rolls. Also, current price, in season, is $500-$700 a night — needless to say we're camping.
Thursday we start our trek northward.