Mingo Flats Road

75°f/23.9°C already at 8am. Apparently that African dust cloud from the Sahara has made its way here. Yuck.Andrea! Oh, and rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!

Hannah's little boy was born yesterday after a rather difficult birth. Poor girl. I am so glad it is over, and he is a fine, healthy, big boy!

I first discovered this little road in 2009. The name intrigued me, and I had noticed that the road made a loop, returning to the main road a few miles away. This is in Randolph county, WV.

The post office is no longer in the abandoned store, of course. Apparently it was consolidated with the post office in Valley Head, not far away.

The surprise is coming upon this beautiful bronze sculpture, hidden along this narrow, rarely traveled little road.

The statue is an homage to the Mingo natives who lived in this area, surprising to learn as I had no idea that tribe had come this far east and south.

Unfortunately the writing on the monument has worn away to being unreadable.

However, I did find this on the Randolph-Elkins Tourism website:

"This monument is erected in memory of the passing of the “Red Man.” An Indian village was located near this place according to local tradition. It was frequented by the Mingo tribe, and at one time was an Iroquois outpost – Mingo Iroquois, meaning “Foreign Service”. The Mingoes are said to have been expelled by the Iroquois for disloyalty. This village was on the trail from the Lakes to the South, but had been abandoned prior to the coming of the “Pale Face”. From this tradition came the name of the present village. The Magisterial District and the adjacent stream – Mingo Run. Tal-gah-Jute-John Logan-The Mingo Chief, is supposed to have used this habitat. He was terrible in war-fare, yet humane in peace and was a factor in Colonial History."

How much of that is true, who knows? But it is good to know what the faded words once said.

A gate behind the monument seems to lead only to a steep, overgrown hillside.

This sign to the right of the Mingo promised more to see on this out-of-the-way road.

I'm pretty sure it was further than 3/4 of a mile, but then the road was so curvy, who could tell? After a few minutes of twists and turns, there stood the monument to Confederate general Robert E. Lee, just as it had when I first ventured back here, all alone on a quiet rise.

According to The Clio website, "August 1861, General Robert E. Lee took command of Confederate forces in western Virginia. The Rebel army encamped around Valley Mountain, near Mingo, in Randolph County. The soldiers endured cold temperatures, incessant rain, and mud. Sickness ravaged the camps and many died. The Confederates left to assault Cheat Mountain, where they were defeated in September. In 1913, the United Confederate Veterans dedicated a monument to the Confederate soldiers of Randolph County and those who died in the camps at Valley Mountain. It was rededicated in 2013 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans."

 

The Clio article goes on to say that over 40 men were killed in battle and buried on the Jacob Marshall farm, where this monument was erected.

Today, it is a quiet serene place, with no echoes from that bloody, violent past to disturb the peace. 

I turned around and drove slowly back the way I came, thinking about what it must have been like back in 1861.

Click here to read my post about my first visit to Mingo Flats, back in 2009. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.