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Canaan Valley & Environs
2015 Southeastern Naturalist 14(Special Issue 7):428–432
An Environmental History of Canaan Valley
Kenneth L. Carvell*
Abstract - Today’s visitors to Canaan Valley know little about its former impenetrability
and remoteness. Canaan Valley’s colorful parade of historical events began with the arrival
of pioneer settlers and was followed by establishment of logging camps and railroads,
devastating wildfires, and later, the US Forest Service era of planting and conservation
programs. Recently, the Canaan Valley Resort and Blackwater Falls were developed as
lodging and recreational facilities to help make Canaan Valley a vacation destination.
Most of Canaan Valley’s (hereafter, the Valley) early history is poorly documented.
The Valley has a rich past. For this summary historical descripton of the
region, I have relied on the works of Allman (1976), Fansler (1962), Kennedy
(1853), Maxwell (1984), and Mott (1972), and all factual statements are supported
by one or more of these sources.
It is believed that the first white men to scale the surrounding mountains and
view the Valley were surveyors for Lord Fairfax in the late 1740s. When the men
climbed Cabin Mountain on the east, Canaan Mountain to the west, and Brown
Mountain to the north, they undoubtedly saw the great height and density of the
lush forest growth on the surrounding slopes. As late as 1800, few permanent
settlers lived in the area, and most frontiersmen were reluctant to venture far into
the maze-like forests for fear of becoming lost and wandering aimlessly through
the rhododendron thickets.
The primary tree in the Valley’s virgin forest was Picea rubens Sarg. (Red
Spruce). These giants, 25–30 in (64–76 cm ) in diameter and over 100 ft (30.5 m)
tall, had deep, full crowns that created a closed canopy. The Red Spruces grew so
close together that reports claim that it was impossible to read a newspaper within
these stands, even at midday. Because of the dense shade, there was little undergrowth
except Rhododendron sp. (rhododendron). In moist areas, rhododendron
shrubs were so unyielding and troublesome to penetrate, that they were called
slicks or hells. There are accounts of explorers and hunters stumbling through
these thickets, only to find after wandering for hours that they had circled back to
their starting point. Thus, few ventured into the Valley without a guide. Odocoileus
virginianus Zimmerman (White-tailed Deer), Ursus americanus (Pallas)
(Black Bear), and occasionally Bison bison pennsylvanicus Shoemaker (Woodland
Bison) and Cervus canadensis canadensis L. (Erxleben) (Eastern Elk), and
many smaller mammals lived here in relative safety from hunters.
Red Spruce was not the only component of the Valley’s coniferous forests.
Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carriere (Eastern Hemlock) was a common associate,
and together these species formed the Red Spruce-Eastern Hemlock forest, a
*Division of Forestry (retired), West Virginia University, PO Box 6125, Morgantown,
WV 26506. Address correspondence to Ron Preston: rpreston@comcast.net.
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2015 Vol. 14, Special Issue 7
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type unique within the 184,000-ha (460,000-ac) spruce forest of West Virginia.
In the Northeast, Red Spruce usually grows with Abies balsamea L. (Mill.)
(Balsam Fir), and in the Southern Appalachians it is mixed with Abies fraseri
(Pursh) Poir. (Fraser Fir). However, in the high-elevation forests of West Virginia,
Eastern Hemlocks were the largest trees in these mixed stands, and often
reached 4–5 ft (1.2–1.5 m) in diameter. Red Spruce grew even taller and provided
more valuable lumber.
Balsam Fir also grew in the Valley, but was restricted to wet glades; the Valley
is one of only five locations in West Virginia where Balsam Fir grows. Despite
the many changes in the Valley’s forests since settlement, Balsam Fir is common
along the Blackwater River and in the wet areas next to the golf course at Canaan
Valley Resort State Park. Locally, Balsam Fir was called Blister Pine because of
the resin-filled blisters under its thin bark. This quaint name gave rise to such
local place names as Blister Run, Blister Swamp, and Blister Swamp Run.
In addition to conifers, the Valley also supported high-quality hardwoods.
The first lumbermen to scout the area were particularly interested in the Prunus
serotina Ehrh. (Black Cherry) trees, which grew with Acer saccharum Marsh.
(Hard Maple) and Betula sp. (birch) on the slopes rising above the Valley floor.
The tall, straight, well-pruned Black Cherry trees yielded high-quality materials
for expensive furniture.
The Valley contained other kinds of habitats including vast open areas and grassy
glades. Tall grasses were most prominent along the Blackwater River and provided
habitat for the Woodland Bison and Eastern Elk. Animal trails connecting these
glades served as paths for the Valley’s first white trappers and hunters.
A remarkable feature of this montane Valley is its size—13 mi (21 km ) long
from north to south and 3–5 mi (4.8–8.0 km ) wide. The Valley floor is about
3200 ft (975 m ) in elevation, and the surrounding mountains are over 4000 ft
(1219 m) tall. Today, visitors traveling along Route 32 see only the southern
part of the Valley; there are no public roads in the Valley’s northern areas. To
access the Valley’s upper reaches, hikers and hunters must follow old roads and
tram-road grades, remnants of the logging era. Unfortunately, these tracks have
been discovered by all-terrain vehicle riders, whose machines disturb vegetation
and soils.
The first permanent settlements in this remote, inhospitable place were established
relatively late compared to those of adjacent states. Many emigrants
moving westward from the East Coast were searching for deep, fertile soil to
farm, and they passed through western Virginia and continued on to Ohio, Indiana,
and Illinois, all of which were heavily settled before much of present-day
West Virginia had any European population. The emigrants who settled on West
Virginia’s rolling tablelands and steep slopes were often from mountainous areas
of Europe, and the Valley reminded them of their homeland. The Valley and
its surrounding spruce-covered mountains were relatively unexplored and even
avoided during the great westward migrations. Forest clearing by lumbermen
eventually opened up much of this high country to homesteaders.
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Some early histories claim that a man named Canaan, or perhaps Kinnan,
explored the Valley in 1791, but this report is unsubstantiated. The first settler’s
identity is unknown, but it may have been Henry Fansler, who settled on Freeland
Run in April 1800 on land now within the Valley’s state park. When he crested
Cabin Mountain and looked down into the lush valley below, he is said to have
proclaimed it the “Land of Canaan”, the fertile valley of wondrous beauty mentioned
in the Old Testament. The Fansler family, however, remained in the Valley
for only three years. The long, cold winters and short growing season forced them
to retreat to lower elevations near Hendricks.
In 1869, Solomon Cosner built a cabin on the same land formerly settled by
the Fanslers. He owned 850 ac (344 ha), raised a large family, and reportedly
killed over 500 bears during the two decades he lived in the Valley. The Cosners
found the region strange, exciting, and wonderful—they were surprised to find
wild horses and cattle, which had escaped during the Civil War from Confederate
raiding parties in West Virginia sent to round up horses and cattle. The Cosner
home became a favorite wilderness lodge for hunters and adventurers from eastern
cities, and a great place to escape the summer heat.
A few years after the Cosners arrived, the Nine family migrated from Terra
Alta, WV, and in 1872 the Easthams joined the settlement. Soon thereafter, the
Harpers, Freelands, Coopers, and Thompsons settled in the region. Although the
first families subsisted primarily by hunting, the Coopers and Thompsons bought
large acreages and cleared them for crops and grazing. Life for these early settlers
was shaped by the Valley’s remoteness, although the Cortland post office, church,
and school pre-date 1900. The town of Davis was not established until 1885; the
Valley’s residents had to travel to Romney, Petersburg, or Winchester to buy and
sell goods.
In 1884, Henry Gassaway Davis, financier and developer of the West Virginia
Central Railroad, extended tracks to Thomas and built a branch line to the site of
present-day Davis, which quickly grew into a prosperous lumber town. By 1885,
a lumber mill was operating, and a tannery, kindling-wood factory, and a pulp and
paper mill soon followed. This fast-growing city had a profound effect on the Valley,
and it was not long before logging engines were crossing Canaan Mountain
into the Valley in harvest timber. The sites of the numerous logging camps, dating
from 1880s to 1920s, are still discernible in the Valley.
Young people from Canaan families worked as loggers in the camps or in
Davis’ stores and factories. As the Valley’s remoteness was lost, a new prosperity
developed. Many Valley residents sold timbering rights to lumber barons, and
the soaring population meant an ever-expanding market for their farm products.
Land clearing for crops and pastures accelerated, reaching its high point in the
mid-1920s. Since that time, many cleared areas have been abandoned and have
returned to their original vegetative cover.
The Valley’s virgin spruce and hardwoods were not cut all at once. Stands in
the western and northern sections were logged before 1910, but the difficulty of
extending tracks over the unstable marshy ground in the Valley’s center spared
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the stands on the eastern side of the drainage for almost a decade. By the mid-
1920s, all merchantable timber had been cut on Cabin Mountain and the tableland
above (now known as Dolly Sods and Roaring Plains).
The slash, or waste wood, on cutover areas created abundant fuel for forest
fires. In addition, after trees were cut, the soils were exposed to the sun, allowing
the deep humus layer, which was often 4–5 ft (1.2–1.5 m ) thick, to dry. Wildfires
invariably followed logging operations. After the slash burned, the organic surface
soil smoldered for months; not even a snow cover extinguished these fires.
Eventually, nothing remained but a thin layer of topsoil over broken bedrock.
Fires destroyed any remaining Red Spruce trees—the forest’s seed source—and
the moist shady environment needed for Red Spruce seedlings to become established.
Red Spruce has reinvaded many areas, gradually seeding in from the few
trees that escaped the axes and fires because they grew on isolated rocky pinnacles
and outcrops.
After the virgin forest was cut and before the second-growth stands developed,
grasses, ferns, and scattered brush dominated the slopes surrounding the
Valley. Although these openings were extensive, they were poor pastures. However,
the lumber companies generated further income from the former forest
lands by fencing large areas and fattening cattle for the Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Washington markets.
During the 1920s, the lumber mills, tannery, kindling-wood factory, and pulp
and paper mill in Davis all closed because the supply of Red Spruce had been
depleted. As Davis’ population declined, the demand for agricultural and dairy
products also dropped, so many pastures and farms were abandoned; however,
agriculture continued to be the basis for the Valley’s economy.
In 1920, when the federal government established the Monongahela Purchase
Unit, the forerunner of today’s Monongahela National Forest, most of the area
acquired had been cut and repeatedly burned, and some of it was being grazed.
The US Forest Service ambitiously planned to replant Red Spruce on all sites that
it once occupied. However, they altered their plans and decided to introduce Red
Spruce stands only on mountaintops and ridges so the trees would serve as seed
sources for open areas below. It was challenging to plant on these sites because
much of the soil was gone: for each seedling planted, workers added a bucket
of soil to supplement the thin topsoil. It was slow work, aggressive fern growth
smothered the seedlings, and Red Spruce seedling survival was low. In the 1930s,
the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) continued this restoration work, often
using Picea abies (L.) Karst. (Norway Spruce) or Pinus resinosa Sol. ex Alton
(Red Pine), because they had learned that the latter two species competed successfully
with the native vegetation. The mature forest stands present today at
Canaan Heights and other points on the Valley’s surrounding slopes are a tribute
to this era of tree planting.
The Canaan Valley area began to attract vacationers around 1900 when summer
visitors came to patronize hotels in Davis because of the cool climate, clean
air, and excellent fishing. Tourist development started in 1934 when the West
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Virginia State Forest and Park Commission, forerunner of the Department of
Natural Resources, secured a 10-year, rent-free lease on 446 ac (180.5 ha) surrounding
Blackwater Falls, on which they developed public trails and overlooks.
In 1937, Blackwater Falls State Park was established, and in 1953, more land
was donated to the Park by the West Virginia Power and Transmission Company.
Blackwater Lodge and the state-owned cabins were built in 1957 and are still
popular in all seasons.
Canaan Valley State Park is located 6 mi (9.6 km) south of Davis on Route
32, and includes 6014 ac (2406 ha). In the early 1960s, Maude Thompson Kaemmerling
willed 3149 ac (1260 ha) of this total acreage to the state for inclusion in
the Park; the state purchased the remaining acreage—mainly farms—to provide
enough land to accommodate a complete summer and winter sports complex.
In 1969, a nine-hole golf course opened and in 1970, it was expanded to 18
holes. The ski complex, located 1 mi (1.6 km ) south of the golf course, offers
double-chair lifts. The longer slope extends to Weiss Knob—4375 ft (1336 m)
in elevation. The camping area, including sewer, water, and electrical hook-ups,
was completed in 1971.
During the 1920s, the Allegheny Power Company bought much of the land in
the Valley’s center with the intention of establishing a pump-storage electricitygenerating
plant. After environmental groups successfully blocked the project,
the power company abandoned their plans. Although the federal government
initially purchased several small parcels to create the Canaan Valley National
Wildlife Refuge, those purchases were dwarfed by acquisition of 12,000 ac (4800
ha ) of the Alleghany Power Company lands in 2002. With the goal of adding
other tracts in the northern third of the Valley, the Refuge will become a significant
addition to the West Virginia’s permanently conserved wildlife lands.
Literature Cited
Allman, R.C. 1976. Canaan Valley and the Black Bear. McClain Printing Company,
Parsons, WV. 126 pp.
Fansler, H.F. 1962. History of Tucker County, West Virginia. McClain Printing Company,
Parsons, WV. 700 pp.
Kennedy, P.P. 1853. The Blackwater Chronicle: A narrative of an expedition into the land
of Canaan in Randolph County, Virginia. Edited by T. Sweet and reprinted in 2002 by
West Virginia University Press, Morgantown, WV. 211 pp.
Maxwell, H. 1884. History of Tucker County, West Virginia: From the Earliest Explorations
to the Present Time. Preston Publishing Company, Kingwood, WV.. Reprinted
in 1993 by McClain Printing Company, Parsons, WV. 590 pp.
Mott, P.G. 1972. History of Davis and Canaan Valley. McClain Printing Company, Parsons,
WV. 544 pp.