A Road From The Past

A Road From The Past. The Battle of McDowell (May 8, 1862). , In front of you is the original road trace of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. The turnpike was built between 1838-1850, to provide a roadway from Staunton, Virginia, and the upper Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River at present-day Parkersburg, West Virginia. The turnpike was designed by Claudius Crozet, famed Principal Engineer and Surveyor for the Virginia Board of Public Works., The turnpike was originally planned to be built on a variation of the macadam plan, a paving system featuring an elevated road surface with several layers of small stones combined to make a watertight surface, but only some sections of the turnpike were completed in this manner., The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike became crucial during the Civil War; some of the earliest campaigns were fought for control of the roadway. The turnpike was the main route for the opposing forces before and after the Battle of McDowell, fought on May 8, 1862. During the battle, members of the same community of Clarksburg (in modern-day West Virginia) fought against each other along the roadway itself, about a mile further down the pike., By the 1920s, highways were paved to provide suitable roads for automobiles. Although some re-routing improvements were made, considerable sections of the original turnpike remained the best available route. The turnpike here was moved to your left where modern-day Rt. 250 now sits., (Captions):, Claudius Crozet, who designed the turnpike described the route as a "sea of mountains and valleys with little level land" and rivers "flowing in every direction of the compass." Crozet was also one of the founders of the Virginia Military Institute. , Image Courtesy of the Virginia Military Institute Archives, The above image shows the standard construction of a macadamized roadway. Parts of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike were macadamized., This map shows the original route of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike from Staunton to Clarksburg, Virginia.