Like the barren surface of the moon, the crest of Cabin Mountain stretched out in a desolate field of rock. Botanist Harry Allard came across this stark image when he walked in the wastelands of Grant County’s spruce forests following an era of intensive logging and roaring forest fires. The life and death of West Virginia’s high altitude valleys is a story of a hidden boreal ecosystem, the transformative harvest of the forest, and its devastating aftermath, leaving little but the seeds for a hopeful rebirth.

If the unmistakable rust-red and ochre brick walls of the Golden Rule Building could talk, what stories would they tell? Most likely they would beam about the town of Belington, a place that has long relied on the Golden Rule and in the building’s darkest hour, brought it love and new life.

For European settlers, Hampshire County, Virginia in the early 1800’s was an unknown territory on the periphery of American society. The land, while previously inhabited by Native Americans, was only recently reached by Europeans.  For immigrants like the Pugh’s coming from Wales, the Capon Valley was reminiscent of their former homeland.  Establishing a homestead in the remote valley required self reliance, innovative spirit, and sheer will.  David Pugh would carve out a legacy into the Capon Valley, one that continues to shine as a beacon honoring a family’s determination to establish a place they could call home.

In July of 1877, a strike on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad threw the United States into a crisis that shook its very foundations. The outburst became the first nationwide general strike in US history, travelling across major and minor railroad lines and spreading into countless other industries. In the Appalachian Forest, battlegrounds erupted in Allegany, Morgan, and Mineral County in the mountains and woods along the B&O line. The uprising crossed divisions of race, gender, and status as the downtrodden rose up against an absolute power. 

Six years after the end of the Civil War, and three years after the Fourteenth Amendment declared that formerly enslaved people held rights as American citizens, Jane Gates purchased a house in Cumberland, Maryland. Jane Gates was born into slavery and denied the opportunity to learn how to read or write. Despite her illiteracy, oral history tells that she was the first black woman in Allegany County to have a bank account; she is known to have signed her name on legal documents with an X. With these achievements lies a great mystery. How did Jane, illiterate and listed in census records as a nurse and a laundress afford a house so soon after gaining her freedom? This question was pondered by her descendants, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and John Gates, when they dove into their ancestry. What they found was an inspiring, but incomplete history of their great-great-grandmother.

North River Mills was once a vibrant community. The main road west from Winchester, the Great Wagon Road, passed through a gap known as Parker's Gap, probably the earliest name for North River Mills. During the French and Indian War there were deadly encounters and abductions around North River Mills. Dr. James Craik, Washington's personal physician, purchased many acres in North River Mills.  Gustavus Croston, Revolutionary War veteran, lived in the village. The name, North River Mills, came into use in the 19th century. In the mid 19th century North River Mills was bypassed by the new east-west road, Route 50. North River Mills was destined to decline while communities along Route 50 would grow. During the Civil War, the presence of hostile Union and Confederate troops forced many residents to make hard choices. In addition to agriculture, over the years North River Mills had much industry. Now there are only two residents, but the town hosts an annual festival or homecoming the day before Mothers Day.