65 this morning, humid and partly cloudy. Rain in the forecast materialized this afternoon with a light shower, enough to drop the temperature a bit.
It's been a quiet day here. We'd planned a road trip but then remembered we had 2 deliveries coming, so the trip is postponed. I weeded flowerbeds, caught up the laundry (we sure make a lot of dirty clothes!) and worked on a wooden case that I'm stenciling. No big projects today. Larry put up a rack on the root cellar to hang my most-used garden tools, cut up some more of the big tree and then cut grass until the rain. Now he's moving the wood he cut to the woodshed.
Last week, on our way home from getting our Marietta booth ready to open, we stopped at a place I've wanted to see for a while: Fort Boreman, a former Civil War fort site that overlooks the city of Parkersburg, WV. It was a cold, blustery day so we could not stay long, but I was glad to finally see the place, especially since it's only an hour from home. I took lots of photos--and have lost all of them except this one. So sad! Apparently I deleted them while cleaning off the camera card, or stored them in a never-to-be-found-again location. So all I have is this, a view from the overlook, looking upriver.:
According to what I've read, there may once have been a flat-topped Indian mound on top of the hill where the fort was later located. No one knows for sure; the early history of the area was focused mostly on the Ohio River and the Little Kanawha (pronounced Ken-aww) River. The confluence of these two waters proved to be an ideal site for a town, and so Parkersburg was founded, at first a collection of log buildings and rough shelters but growing into a strong commercial center with thriving steamboat and railroad traffic.
The hill on which Fort Boreman was built in 1863 was an ideal defensive position to protect the town and the railroad bridges over the rivers. The fort had five cannons, some entrenchments, and buildings to house some 200 soldiers. One can assume that there must have been a blacksmith, stables, and other buildings that supported the fort and its inhabitants.
Fort Boreman never saw any actual action during the Civil War, and its buildings fell into disrepair. One large cannon known as Long Tom was brought to the site and was fired to commemorate various holidays, but this huge gun was so powerful to literally shook houses and broke windows in homes located at the base of the hill, so that practice was discontinued.
There are some strange stories connected to the Fort. A "pest house" was built somewhere on the hill to house smallpox victims because the house Parkersburg used for this purpose became overcrowded when the soldiers and their camp followers came to the area, bringing many cases of the disease with them. The pest house eventually burned down, and its exact location is not certain, nor is the location of the many unmarked graves of those who died there. Apparently there was once a hog farm on the site, which was said to be a way of processing garbage, at least for a time.
Another story has to do with murder and hanging. Three men of the Union persuasion were convicted of murdering a Southern sympathizer, and were hanged at the base of Fort Boreman hill. And for a period of time, the Nemesis Temple owned the property and built a good concrete road to the site. No one knows exactly what activities the Temple conducted there. At some point the National Guard used the site for training practice. Perhaps these various uses and events, or the bones of the Native Americans in the vanished burial mound have caused some people to believe they have seen and heard strange things on the hill.
The hill was almost overgrown completely with brush and vines when the city of Parkersburg decided to reclaim the area and turn it into a historical site and public park. Work began in 2006 or 2007, and today the park is a beautiful place that sees many visitors annually.
I guess I'll have to go back one day to get more photos. I won't mind a bit.
Sources:
Greater Parkersburg
West Virginia Encyclopedia
Clutchmov
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
Still love reading your blog. My IPAD is so old, it won't always let me respond, but my laptop does. Am sad that WV is experiencing an increase in deaths due to the virus now that the state is opening...however, seems to be still somewhat safe. I have been in Indy over two years now, near family, and I am at almost 70 day isolation...and doing fine...family in Florida been in even longer...hope you are doing well...WV Strong...and a safer place to live...prayers
ReplyDeleteSo much went on in that area! And so much of it now lost - at east until someone starts digging in the archives or the ground.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of digging, I know what you mean about laundry. I don't understand how one person staying home can generate so much laundry - and "dish laundry" too!