A Trip to a Troubled Place

Sattler's Mountain, between Clay and Dille. Population: 19.

We drove across about half of West Virginia yesterday to take our donations to a food pantry in the fairly remote community of Dille, WV. It was a beautiful drive, with scattered snow in places, but the sun was bright even though the temperature didn't reach 20 degrees all day.

Along the Dille-Widen road

As we wound along the creek that borders the road leading to Dille, I considered what it must be like to live in places like this. When I moved to the mountains, I wanted a remote place away from people. I wanted space, and a whole lot less development than what was going on in Prince William county, VA, where I grew up. I wanted deep country and simple living, and I found it here in the place where I still live.

The church that is home to the area's food pantry

There were advantages to living here that I didn't consider at the time. Landing here was pretty much dumb luck. Our place was not easy to get to back then, and the road was in terrible condition. It was pretty much a mile to anything--mail, schoolbus, phone and power lines. But the town that was closest to us had the kinds of services a person needs: a pharmacy, hardware and farm supply stores, a decent couple of grocery stores, a five-and-dime, a small department store or two, gas stations, a small hospital, doctors, etc. So we could get most of what we needed without traveling too far. For bigger purchases or things not as easily available, we had two small cities within an hour or so. The schools were decent too, and so was the local library. And the neighbors--one does not find good neighbors like ours every day.

Snow blows off the roof of a mobile home on the Dille-
Widen Road

All this was passing through my mind as we drove the winding central West Virginia roads yesterday. The place we were going was pretty far off the beaten path. Maybe once there had been work here--logging, mining--but there is no sign of much industry now. And it was ragvaged by the June floods so people who had little to begin with have even less. Getting to a place with the kinds of amenities I mentioned above means about an hour drive, or more, along some fairly tricky roads. Even in those towns, prices are higher than in my area because it costs more to get goods into places like this. And work is scarce there too.

Downtown Clay, WV

There have been a lot of federal and other funds pumped into these areas, particularly after the floods. Recently a scandal broke in one town (Clay) when the mayor and the head of the development authority made derogatory comments about the First Lady on Facebook, and it went viral. That has led to some close scrutiny of the development authority and its head, who apparently lacks the required credentials for her job, but gets a salary of over $80,000 a year--this in a place so depressed that the national press says it is in a Great Depression, a place with huge drug problems and deep poverty.

Downtown Clay

Places like Clay are usually off the media's radar and local politicians can and do bend the rules to help themselves. Monies that might have benefited the community often end up benefiting the few with the power to allocate those funds. This happens in other places too, of course, but in such a depressed area it has far more negative impact.

Downtown Clay--the book from which this Inn got its name is
a classic of West Virginia's early history.

I came away feeling sad for those caught in a place with so many problems and so little light at the end of the tunnel.

On Sattler's Mountain

There is great beauty in those hills and in many of the people who live there. The remoteness, the deep woods and wild rivers, the freedom from traffic and crowding and the problems of city dwellers are all pluses but there are huge challenges. I hope and pray that some miracle comes to bring jobs and better times to them.

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

Book Review: Booger Hole

The title itself was enough to make me want to read this book. I'd read it several years ago actually, by ordering a copy via interlibrary loan. It's not what you might expect from the title, but it's interesting local history.

During the Civil War there were marauding groups of men who referred to themselves as "home guards" in Clay County, West Virginia, as well as in many other locations in the state. In some places these groups were probably honestly patrolling their homeplaces to protect them from deserting soldiers or attacks by enemy soldiers of either Army (where you lived in this state was really no guarantee of which side you took in the Civil War--it varied even within the same family, and there are many brother-against brother stories told about the Civil War days).

But the Clay County group was renegade. They attacked on a whim, stole and killed at will, and terrorized the countryside, especially one area that came to be known as "Booger Hole." In the mountains, a booger is a haint--a ghost, and usually one that is not friendly. The community called Booger Hole suffered many attacks and killings and the reputation of the area was so bad no one wanted to go up that creek unless it was a dire necessity.

Cindy Curry's book traces the history of the troubles in Booger Hole, and relates the stories of murder and revenge as well as a few ghost stories.

Sunday's Drive Home

Last Sunday we traveled home from the Footmad Fall Fling,on Rte 16 North, the slower route but incredible scenery. I saw many things that I missed getting a photo of: the young man constructing a grapevine tree, a pretty waterfall, a cave beside the road, old buildings. But I did manage to take a few, and I'll share some today, and a few more tomorrow.

Signs, signs....This one grabbed my attention. The shop unfortunately was not open.

The shop rested beside an old mill, hence the name.

This was a truly beautiful place. The house which is hidden behind the trees to the left, was three floors high and in excellent condition. I was amazed to find this unmarked beauty. I have no idea what the name of the mill might have been. This was in Fayette County.

The peaceful Elk River near Ivydale in Clay County. The Elk is one of my favorite rivers, running from the high mountains in Pocahontas County to Charleston, ever-changing along its path but always beautiful.

The entrance to Ivydale, a small, quiet community reached by crossing the Elk River on an old iron bridge. We saw absolutely no one when we drove through the town, but then it was over 90 degrees so everyone was probably inside.