Those Who Came Before

Those Who Came Before. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. , Place names like Kanawha, Monongahela, and Allegheny remind us of the generations of people here before us. Prehistoric Paleo-Indians hunted, gathered wild foods, and buried their dead on the land we now call West Virginia. The earliest nomadic hunting peoples came here in pursuit of woolly mammoths, mastodon, and saber-toothed tigers, but as the climate changed, the first peoples were forced to change too., The new, more diverse Appalachian forests encouraged the first peoples to become more settled, and they built substantial shelters, gathered and grew edible wild plants, fished, and developed sophisticated stone and bone tools. Eventually, diverse tribal groups and languages developed, including Cherokee, Lenape (Delaware), Mingo, and Shawnee. Villages were built around fields of corn, beans, and squash (the "Three Sisters"), and their development of the bow and arrow remind us of their technical achievements., Remember, these areas are special places for all to explore. Please do not climb on rocks, disturb the area, or take historic objects., [Captions:] , The National Park Service protects over 400 archeological sites in the New River Gorge. Most of these sites are Native American rock shelters, like on the Castle Rock Trail here at Grandview (photo at left). (Artwork courtesy of Kentucky Heritage Council), Atlatls were used in this area for hunting. These spear throwers can produce an amazing amount of energy and speed, and work just like a plastic "arm" to throw a tennis ball for a dog.