Celebrating our ancient forest
The history of the Forest Festival includes many stories of weather wonders. The intrepid team of people who make this festival happen never give up once a plan is in place.
Past directors and their committees have made sure that Forest Festival celebrations have not been restricted by the rain or curtailed in the cold.
The first festival was nearly canceled because there was not enough water available in town to entertain the host of guests expected for the event.
Tygart Valley River was so dry that it was called “Brady Boulevard” because Spates Brady drove his automobile up and down the dry river bed looking for a natural spring to tap as a source of water for Elkins guests.
Historian Don Rice told me that the final solution to the 1930 drought dilemma was to use a railroad locomotive to pump water over Kelly Mountain from the Cheat River, where the water was fed by natural limestone caves east of Elkins.
Dry weather in 2024 greatly reduced the amount water in local rivers once again, but autumnal rains have come just in time for the Mountain State Forest Festival.
Although Helene flooding has brought much harm this last week in other parts of the United States, dry weather conditions have uncovered an interesting rock formation at Webster Springs, where the dry river bed looked a little bit like “Brady Boulevard” of the 1930s.
Last week on the front page of the Charleston Gazette-Mail there was a picture of the dry Elk River bed where square rocks looked almost like chunks of pavement. When local people have seen these rock formations in the past, they thought prehistoric human beings might have cut them.
However, West Virginia University Professor Jaime Toro has confirmed that the Webster County rocks are “Tessellated Pavement,” a 250-million-year-old geological formation made by extreme pressure. These rocks are also found in Tasman, Australia.
Tessellated Pavement is one more reason to celebrate the beauty of these ancient mountains we love so much. They were part of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.
The unusual variety of colors in West Virginia trees is also evidence of our ancient connection to prehistoric plants and global geology.
Wet or dry, hot or cold the West Virginia hills are phenomenal, and Elkins citizens are wise to invite the world to help celebrate this autumnal beauty at Forest Festival time.