Thurmond, Post 3

Still more photos from Thurmond. Can you tell I loved the place? And have added yet another abandoned railroad town to visit--Nuttalburg. We just need to find a time to go there.

We didn't venture up this curving road; that will be for our next trip to Thurmond. What will we find, I wonder?

The red house is privately owned, and is being renovated with an eye to overnight rentals. How I would love to stay there, just for one night, and wander the town in the dark.

Under the tangle of vines and overgrowth is a low building. What was it? No idea.

I was trying to photograph a flower, and ended up with this spooky picture instead.

Surprise! Trucks can go on railroad tracks too--as long as the truck has specially fitted wheels, that is. CSX maintenance crew, passing by and waving.

Porches--I do like them. This one makes me wonder, who sat out here, waving at the trains? 

More vines; not sure what this one is, but the color was arresting.

Another porch. Larry would not go back here with me; he was worried about copperhead snakes, which is a real possibility in this rocky, overgrown environment. This porch is actually right up against the hillside and must have been a cool retreat on hot days, and a sheltered one in cold weather.

One of the houses now belonging to the parks service.

Vines and vines, this one English ivy which is not native. I wonder if there was a flower garden up on the bank?

Wild asters bloomed in profusion on the hillside.

Hideaway? Well, it was once a home, now in the care of the park service.

Such nice work went into building the bank; this carved stone caught my eye.

Remember the alley I referred to in yesterday's post?

What intrigued me, besides its steep slope, was the stone and brickwork. Here, you can see that the masons didn't bother to finish the stonework, since it was hidden away up the alley.

And here, from almost the top of the alley, looking down, you can kind of see where the rough finished stone meets the finished, on the right.

Beautiful work on this arched window opening.

And here, some very rough, inexpert work closing in one of the window. Surely not the work of a trained mason.

The unfinished stone, yet again.

And here, the finished stone. This was very likely the work of Spanish or Italian masons, who were the primary stonemasons in West Virginia during the boom years of coal, timber, oil and gas production.

I was intrigued by this perspective.

Here is what is called dry-laid stone, with no mortar between the joints. Can you tell I'm married to a former mason?

I think this is a fig tree? Growing out of the stone wall above. What an odd thing to find.

And now I will close the door on Thurmond with one last door photo.

Until our next visit, that is. 

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

More from Thurmond

46 this morning, and hasn't warmed up much. Very chilly, overcast with occasional winds, but no rain.

I want to go back to our visit to Thurmond a couple weeks ago; there were so many things to photograph there. So here's a few more.

The turbulent New River, far below the trestle.

Morning glories, still in bloom even in mid-October.

And honeysuckle, usually a spring bloomer.

Pokeweed berries, a favorite with children to make "ink" and war paint, but poisonous to eat.

There are several homes tucked up in the hills, most of them now owned by the National Park Service.

Abandoned, what used to be the Thurmond business district.

On this house you can see the louvered shutters installed by the park service as part of preservation efforts. I think these might be part of moisture control, to prevent mold and the like.

I cannot remember what this plant is, but it seems to thrive in its growing place in the stone wall.

I have more photos of this alley for a later post. It fascinated me.

Coal, lots of it, loaded onto many many coal cars that rolled through while we were there.

The Thurmond Town Hall, still in business, although that's about all that is.

Virginia Creeper showing its fall colors.

A hand cart rusts away outside the post office.

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

Back to the New River: Thurmond, WV

48 this morning, chilly and clear after a rainy start to the day yesterday. Cool temps predicted all week.

We delivered a set of Fire-King tulip bowls to a buyer in Charleston yesterday--it was much better than shipping those expensive bowls (250.00+), and we got to visit ReStore at the same time, so a win-win for us and the really nice guy who bought the bowls.

Since we were an hour south of home, we decided to take another road trip, back to the New River Gorge and to a place I have wanted to see for years, the abandoned railroad town of Thurmond.

Well, Thurmond isn't exactly abandoned: there are 5 permanent residents there, and several privately owned but unoccupied homes. Still, the area that used to be the main business area is vacant. The state park service took over the area some years back, slowly developing it into a tourist attraction. Then last year the federal government added the New River Gorge as the newest national park, which encompasses Thurmond.

I had thought that since it was cool, cloudy and rainy, there wouldn't be many people in Thurmond, but even so there were quite a few visitors. There were kayakers, bikers, hikers, and we even saw one man fly-fishing. The ranger on duty seemed to think that every visitor knew nothing about the state, which was kind of funny as he tried to tell Larry about mining, since Larry grew up in a coal camp. The ranger had a few details wrong; mining was the reason for the railroad to have been built in the rugged gorge, and when it died out, so did the need for the town.

To say the area is beautiful doesn't begin to do it justice. Here's a partial photo journal of our day; I will probably be posting more, as I took about 300 pictures.

The road follows the tracks. I'd love to be on this section when a train comes.

The road narrows and narrows as it snakes its way to the town. There are plenty of lay-bys for cars to pass each other, fortunately.

The road is also bordered most of the way by the prettiest stream. Rocks and water, so beautiful.

And then the bridge into town. One lane, side-by-side with the railroad trestle.

Below, the New River, home of probably the wildest Class VI rapids on the East Coast.

Once across the bridge and parked, we immediately ventured onto the trestle. I have been having some dizziness due to sinus and allergy  issues, but I held the cables and occasionally Larry so I could get out there.

Far below, the river.

The ranger came out and ran everyone off the trestle, since a coal train was on the way.

Waiting for the train.

And here it comes. This one was at least 200 cars, with two engines in the center to help push and pull the heavy load.

The large concrete tower in the above photos held coal and water for refueling trains back in the steam days.

These pulley wheels on the outside of the coal tower fascinated me. What were they for? Pulling up loads of coal, maybe?

This little one was too cute. Alissa, her name was, and she kept grinning at me until I had to hide behind her parents so they could take a photo of her looking at them. Then she thought I was playing peek-a-boo. There was no danger at this point, of course, the train was long gone.

One of the empty buildings in the town.

And yet another.

It must have been a prosperous place, to merit such a nice bank building.

The whole of the commercial block, all empty these days.

We finally walked back to the big hotel building, which I forgot to photograph, of course. 

I hated to leave but the day was waning, and we had a long drive ahead. These falls were along the road to the town too; I waited for the homeward journey to stop and take photos. 

Dunloup Falls

We stopped in Fayetteville for a late lunch/early dinner. Both of us were starving, and we'd heard good things about the Cathedral Cafe and Book Store, so that's where we went. I have to admit, I was underwhelmed. It was quite noisy, not the quaint environment I envisioned. It was also very busy, which I am always glad to see for small businesses like this, but the cost of two sandwiches, a hard cider and one glass of wine was over 40.00. That's a bit much for our budget; it was good but not superb, and I doubt we'll return. Although...the coffee I got to go was absolutely delicious. But not included in that 40.00 tab. 

We took the slow road home, winding across central West Virginia. The black line in the center shows roughly the route we took, all two-lane or smaller, except for the trip down to Charleston.

It was just about dark by the time we got home, and I have to admit our own road looked pretty good to us.

We will certainly go back to Thurmond, and spend a much longer day. Perhaps in the spring? The ranger said about 12 trains come through every day, and you know that would keep me quite happy. In spring there will be wildflowers to photograph, and Larry wants to fish...and I want to sit on one of those old porches and write. It's a place to inspire imagination, and words.

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