Kump Center’s Elkins History Talks begin tonight
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ELKINS – The Kump Education Center will be offering three Elkins History Talks this fall, starting tonight with a session focusing on the prehistoric geology of the area.
Kicking off the first of the three Elkins History Talks, Dr. Jim Van Gundy will be speaking on “Elkins Geology” tonight at 7 p.m. at the Kump Education Center on 401 Randolph Avenue. The event is free to the public and everyone is invited to attend.
Van Gundy, who taught geology and other science courses at Davis & Elkins College for many years, wrote a book on the subject that was published in 2022 titled “The Nature and Scenery of the West Virginia Highlands: A Motorist’s Guide.” In a prior interview with The Inter-Mountain in 2022, Van Gundy explained that he defined “the Highlands” as everything south of the Pennsylvania line and to the east of Interstate 79, all the way to Sutton, then everything east of US 19 all the way to Beckley, and then everything to the east of 77, all the way to the Virginia line.
Kump Education Center Executive Director Dr. Heather Biola said Van Gundy’s talk tonight will touch on the prehistoric aspects of the area, such as why there are two rivers near Elkins that run parallel without touching, and how fossils of the very first seeds were found in Randolph County.
When asked what inspired this new series of talks, Biola explained that, after the continued success of the Kump Center’s Tree Talks in the spring, the Center wanted to expand a similar idea into the fall season.
“The Tree Talks were very well-attended,” Biola told The Inter-Mountain. “I like the idea of having something about nature in the spring and history in the fall.”
All Elkins History Talks will take place at 7 p.m. at the Kump Education Center. All talks will be free to the public.
The second talk in the history series will take place on Oct. 21 with historian Rob Whetsell speaking on “Early History in Elkins.” Whetsell, who is the author of “Elkins, West Virginia: The Metropolis Revisited,” will be speaking on the era of Henry G. Davis creating the railroad town of Elkins, as well as some “disastrous events” that Biola says “changed the young city.”
On Nov. 11, Biola herself will be hosting the third and final history talk. She will be telling stories about former West Virginia Governor Herman Guy Kump’s time as the mayor of Elkins, such as when the city got its, at the time, state-of-the-art water system in the 1920s and when a fall drought nearly stopped the first-ever Forest Festival.
The Kump Education Center will also be holding open house events at the Center, which was the Neo-Federal Revival home of Kump. Two open houses will be offered on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 during the Forest Festival. Another open house will be on Oct. 31 for Kump’s 149th birthday. The last two open houses of the year will be on Dec. 12 and Dec. 13, and will include visits from Santa Claus.
To learn more or to contact the Kump Education Center, email kumpec@gmail.com or visit kumpeducationcenter.org.