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Last week my column told how Elkins and Richwood were important towns to my family a hundred years ago. This week the focus is updated from the significance of timber to the importance of tourism in the Monongahela National Forest. Today the glorious forest region attracts both artists and tourists.
The natural beauty and botanical diversity of our Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area (AFNHA) is helping to give wider recognition to nine towns in the Mon Forest Towns Partnership (MFTP). This national heritage area includes nine Mon Forest towns: Cowen, Davis, Durbin, Elkins, Franklin, Marlinton, Parsons, Petersburg, and Richwood.
There are new grant-driven projects that are getting attention because of organized structure within the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area. Last week a grant of $402,000 was given to MFTP to improve hiking trails. We have the possibility of bringing together the arts, history, recreation and tourism funding that could support middle-class families now that the timber business is declining.
The name of Davis & Elkins College reminds us of the senators who brought the railroad into these mountains, and the Cherry River Festival reminds visitors that the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company brought the timber industry to Richwood. However, there are several initiatives that are starting to bring both outdoor recreation and artistic expression to these mountain towns.
This year in Elkins the Augusta Festival moved away from the college and into town where participants enjoyed the downtown experience. Locals and visitors enjoyed the outdoor music in the amphitheater behind the depot and people were interested to see the new event center opening in the old railyard.
Bloomfield Richwood is the most innovative private investment in the arts that I have seen since the pandemic shut down. This gallery was started by Cecil Ybanez, a sculptor who recognized the potential for artistic development and cultural tourism in a Mon Forest where much of the timber was first cut by the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company. To its credit that lumber company gave the largest share of land to our forest making it the largest national forest in the eastern United States.
Now Elkins and Richwood are developing as towns where tourists can escape the contagion of the cities and see what is left of small-town America a hundred years ago when trains served rural areas by bringing city dwellers to all the clean mountain springs and health spas like Berkely, Cacapon, Minnehaha, and White Sulphur Springs.
We have seen enough forgotten ghost towns. Now it is time for the Mon Forest Towns to grow again like the towns near the New River Gorge National Park where tourism has rapidly increased. Forests are the last best hope for the warming world, and we have the biggest national forest in the eastern United States. Our mountains offer hope for a future of healthier living.