Charleston Trails / Illustrated History of the Midland Trail

Charleston Trails, also, Illustrated History of the Midland Trail. . , Charleston Trails ,

"It is solved by walking." , - Latin proverb, "A taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors." , - Henry David Thoreau , American writer and naturalist, 1817 - 1862, "Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods." , - John Muir , American naturalist, 1838 - 1914

, Illustrated History of the Midland Trail , First Inhabitants ≈ 8,000 - 6,000 BC , Evidence that nomadic Early Archaic people inhabited the Kanawha Valley was discovered in excavations on the banks of the Great Kanawha River at St. Albans in 1964-68. Archaeologists unearthed about 1,100 flint projectile points, knives, hoes, drills, scrapers, hammer stones and anvils, which have been radiocarbon dated to 8,200-8,930 BC., Adena Moundbuilders ≈ 500 BC - 150 AD , The Adena lived here in farmsteads, cultivated sunflowers, had a social hierarchy, built 50+ burial mounds and had extensive trade networks, as evidenced by the elaborate burial tomb, 13 skeletons and prehistoric artifacts made from Gulf Coast shell and Great Lakes copper found in the 1883 Smithsonian excavation of the South Charleston Mound., Early Settlement 17th Century - 1774 , Great buffalo herds and nomadic natives blazed this east-west path across the Appalachians for the pioneers who followed. In 1755 about 50 European families lived in the Greenbrier Valley, but few westward due to Indian hostilities. That year Shawnee captive Mary Draper Ingles (Follow the River) escaped using the path in her courageous 500-mile return home. By 1774 Greenbrier Valley had grown to 300 families, and the Morris family built the Kanawha Valley's first permanent settlement at present day Cedar Grove., First Official Mid-Land Trail , George Washington 1770 - 1790 , For his service in the French and Indian War, George Washington was awarded land in the Ohio and Kanawha Valleys. At his death in 1799 he owned 60,000+ acres. In 1784 Washington garnered funding from the Virginia Assembly to clear a Mid-Land Route from the Atlantic Ocean to Cedar Grove where the Kanawha River could be navigated to the Ohio and then Mississippi Rivers., Cedar Grove Launches River Travel 1790 - 1824 , Midland Trail's completion in 1790 brought a steady flow of goods and settlers across Virginia to Cedar Grove where the journey westward switched to boat. Kanawha Valley's 1st settlement flourished as a hub for the shipping trade, manufacturing flatboats, barrels and soon the salt business. Kanawha flat boaters became world-renowned as they transported goods to Cincinnati and New Orleans. Westbound pioneers salvaged wood from their flatboats to build cabins. By 1824 steamboats navigated the Kanawha daily and flatboats and steamboats held races., Civil War 1861 - 1865 / A New State 1863 , The Civil War turned neighbor against neighbor in this region, as several important battles were fought all along the Midland Trail. Gauley Bridge, gateway to Kanawha Valley and originally with the South was taken and retaken 3 times and its bridge burned twice, last by retreating Confederate soldiers in 1862. By 1863 Union sympathies had grown so strong in western Virginia that it seceded from confederate Virginia and was re-admitted to the Union as the new state of West Virginia., Booker T. Washington Up From Slavery , 1856 - 1915 , In 1865 nine-year old Booker T. Washington walked 200+ miles with his newly freed family from the Burroughs Plantation in Virginia to Malden, WV, where he learned to read and nourished his burning desire for an education. Part of the last generation born into slavery, Booker became a renowned educator, author, orator, and advisor to US president. His autobiography Up From Slavery is #3 on NY Times list of Top 100 Books Written in 20th Century. Visit his boyhood home in Malden., Collis P. Huntington , C&O Railroad 1871 - Present , Industrialist Collis P. Huntington brought the C&O Railroad from Richmond, VA along the New and Kanawha Rivers thru the Kanawha Valley to the Ohio River, where he established the planned city of Huntington, WV, in 1871., Next he expanded the eastern end from Richmond to the Atlantic Ocean at Newport News in 1881-2, facilitating the development of coal resources on the New and Gauley Rivers. Passenger trains soon replaced stage coaches. By 1883 the Kanawha Valley was WV's largest coal-producing area.