Porte Crayon

Porte Crayon. Blackwater Falls State Park. , Beginning in 1853, David Hunter Strother, writing under the pen name of "Porte Crayon," wrote a series of articles about his various adventures into the Blackwater region for Harper's New Monthly Magazine. His colorful descriptions and detailed illustrations were widely read and today provide a goode description of this area before settlement of the virgin forest., For centuries, the pristine wilderness that occurred here stood virtually undisturbed by man. Native American foraging parties most likely confined their use of this area to the summer months due to harsh area winters. Accounts of non-natives being in this area go back as far as 1736. It is not known who the first non-natives were to see Blackwater Falls. However, it was Porte Crayon who introduced the world to the great waterfall of the Blackwater River.,

"Surrounded by a tangled thicket of rhododendron, canopied by the loftiest firs, the thunder of the cataract in their ears day and night, and its spray freshening the atmosphere they breathed, our adventures passed the eight days that followed in the fullest enjoyment of the pleasures of forestlife.", Excerpt from The Virginian Canaan," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 8, December 1853.