It is likely no coincidence that the Babcock Boom and Lumber Company, Davis' largest employer in the timber era, built its office and store adjacent to the bank, just a few yards from the passenger train station, and just across the street from . . . — — Map (db m236990) HM
This area became a full-fledged member of the West Virginia Park System on October 5, 1953. It was made possible by a gift to the West Virginia Conservation Commission by companies of the Allegheny Power System, which includes Monongahela Power . . . — — Map (db m205460) HM
Even before the timber boom in Davis was fully underway, the area's natural beauty attracted visitors. From the moment it became possible for travelers to reach nearby Blackwater Falls, word spread fast. The railroad arrived in 1884, and the town . . . — — Map (db m237175) HM
Early visitors to this area scrambled down a boulder-strewn path and climbed over fallen trees to view Blackwater Falls. As one of today's visitors, you are enjoying a boardwalk of more than 200 steps that will take you to the closest viewing . . . — — Map (db m153050) HM
The original red spruce-hemlock forests on this area were cut beginning in 1894 leaving a thick layer of highly flammable slash on the forest floor. Intense forest fires started that often burned all the organic matter exposing mineral soil and . . . — — Map (db m234895) HM
Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge works to preserve the unique, wetlands and uplands of this high elevation, moist valley, providing a haven for a diverse collection of plants and animals. Take time to talk Refuge trails. View red spruce on . . . — — Map (db m210149) HM
Although West Virginia was not universally a "Jim Crow" segregated state, state law required separate facilities for schooling. Davis and Coketon, a community near Thomas, each had separate schools for African American students. The African . . . — — Map (db m236910) HM
Downtown Davis businesses included several owned by immigrant families whose descendants are still residents today. The building at 346 William Avenue once housed the Davis Lunch Room, which belonged to James and Lucy Quattro, and opened in 1942. . . . — — Map (db m259409) HM
Dedicated July 17, 1887
The committee from Winchester Presbytery organized the congregation into the Davis Presbyterian Church with 14 members.
William R. Wilson Sadie M. Wilson
Herman A. Meyer Mrs. S. L. Crabtree
A. D. Collins . . . — — Map (db m259362) HM
In 1884, Henry Gassaway Davis's WV Central & Pittsburgh Railroad established Davis. Many industries followed, most notably Thompson's
Blackwater Lumber, later acquired by Babcock Boom and Lumber. Jobs built on the area's rich resources
drew . . . — — Map (db m229945) HM
During the timber era in Davis, and in industrial periods elsewhere, fraternal organizations served as meeting places for engaged community members and leaders in business and politics. Many still function this way. The Fraternal Order of Eagles . . . — — Map (db m259376) HM
Approximately 820 feet east of here, Camp 70 Road intersects the historic Fairfax Line, the western boundary of about 5,000,000 acres inherited by Thomas Lord Fairfax in 1719. In 1746 a survey party that included Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas . . . — — Map (db m210152) HM
Muscle, steam power, cable, water, animals, and gravity were the key energy resources for the work of felling timber and bringing logs from the woods to the mill, but these energy resources had to be applied in specialized ways to be put to their . . . — — Map (db m237342) HM
The West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad established the town of Davis and began operating trains in 1885, mainly to haul coal. However, other industrialists soon took notice. The area was just beginning to develop, and its vast, diverse . . . — — Map (db m238885) HM
This memorial honors all American veterans who, although separated by generations, shared a common, undeniable goal -- to valiantly protect our country's freedoms.
The memories of these American veterans will continue to live on whenever and . . . — — Map (db m153047) WM
Our friends and co-workers who died in the performance of their duty while piloting twin engine aircraft N91NR which crashed near this site January 21, 1976.
Dedicated: Dec. 4, 1976
West Virginia Department of Natural Resources
Ira S. . . . — — Map (db m229942) HM
The sawmill on this site was a bandsaw mill, a fairly recent innovation at the mill's 1886 opening that helped make sawmills more productive. Bandsaw blades consist of a continuous loop wound around two pulleys. Logs that came into the mill were . . . — — Map (db m237312) HM
The town of Davis incorporated in 1889, just five years after the railroad arrived. As timbering rapidly grew, industries required a larger workforce than a sparse, local population could provide. Recruiters looked to several labor sources, . . . — — Map (db m236911) HM
Dedicated in Her Memory as the First Baby Born in Davis, West Virginia
May 26, 1886 - April 8, 1926
Parents
Dr. John Wesley and Ida Florence (Wolford) Hockman
Spouse
Charles Henry Shrader
Children
Evelyn Pearl (Jones), . . . — — Map (db m235642) HM
You are standing near the site of Camp 70, one of the numbered logging camps built by the Babcock lumber Company of Davis during the early 1900s. Temporary camps like these were located along railroad lines. Babcock Lumber built the railroads to . . . — — Map (db m210150) HM
The upper part of today's Stumptown Ales once accommodated a boarding house. Boarding houses provided single or shared bedrooms and hot meals served in a common area, and usually hosted both overnight guests and long-term tenants. In timber towns . . . — — Map (db m237219) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m153051) HM
The town of Davis' most visible economic sectors today are hospitality, recreation, and tourism, but for many who live here, forest products have provided livelihood for generations. When J. L. Rumbarger's sawmill opened in 1886, other forest . . . — — Map (db m238995) HM
The arrival of a railroad set the stage for industrial development and a quick, dramatic change in the landscape. The West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad (WVC&P) was financed by industrialist Henry Gassaway Davis, the town's namesake. . . . — — Map (db m237035) HM
Cornerstone laid July 30, 1893
Dedicated September 16, 1894
Built at a cost of $7000, this impressive building reflects the optimism of the lumbering boomtown years of Davis. A classic example of wood construction using virgin spruce . . . — — Map (db m259364) HM
The resistant Homewood and Conoquenessing sandstones, the “Salt Sands” of the driller, form the Canyon Walls and Blackwater Falls. These sands produce oil and natural gas in West Virginia and commercial brines on the Kanawha and Ohio . . . — — Map (db m69720) HM
💧 The resistant Homewood and Conoquenessing sandstones, the Salt Sands of the driller, form the Canyon Walls and Blackwater Falls. These sands produce oil and natural gas in West Virginia and commercial brines on the Kanawha and Ohio . . . — — Map (db m205458) HM
Davis industries like the sawmill made varied forest products between the 1880s and 1920s. The West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad, later Western Maryland, provided these businesses with access to distant locations, enabling their . . . — — Map (db m239012) HM
The Davis region has transformed repeatedly over time. In the colonial era, British law forbade living in what was then Native American territory. After the American Revolution, settlers of European descent trickled gradually across and into the . . . — — Map (db m237931) HM
Among the many business types found in a timber town of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, few contributed more to the legends that defined their often-rowdy reputations than saloons. However, establishments like Verzi's (right), which . . . — — Map (db m237223) HM
