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141-569: The ATC is headquartered in Harpers Ferry , West Virginia . Sandi Marra serves as president of the organization. The Appalachian Trail was originally conceived by forester Benton MacKaye who envisioned a grand trail that would connect a series of farms and wilderness work/study camps for city-dwellers. In 1922, at the suggestion of Major William A. Welch , director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission , MacKaye's plan

282-554: A civil engineer and mining manager in Fayette County . Former West Virginia governor William A. MacCorkle described him as a man who knew the land "as a farmer knows a field". Beginning in 1898, Page teamed with northern and European-based investors to take advantage of the undeveloped area. They acquired large tracts of land in the area, and Page began the Deepwater Railway , a short-line railroad chartered to stretch between

423-625: A "John Brown professorship" to be held by an African-American. In 1906, Storer hosted the first U.S. meeting of the Niagara Movement , the predecessor of the NAACP , after its organizational meeting in Fort Erie, Ontario . In the late 1890s, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad wanted the land where the fort was located to make its line less vulnerable to flooding. Some white townspeople were eager to get rid of

564-469: A Visitor Center and a John Brown Museum. Harpers Ferry National Monument became Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on May 29, 1963. "Recreationists" who wanted a park and did not care about the history were a problem. Local residents did not want to lose recreational opportunities, but swimming and fishing on the Shenandoah shore, formerly common, were prohibited. In order to keep recreationists out of

705-401: A bandstand. Visitors could also play croquet , tennis, rent boats, fish, or wade in the river. Later there were baseball games. Blacks and whites attended on different days. In 1883, there were an estimated 100,000 visitors. There were six special trains to Harpers Ferry from various points. The amusement park was kept open despite periodic flooding and repairs until 1909. The B&O kept

846-437: A bill to establish Harpers Ferry National Military Park in "the area where the most important events of [John Brown's raid] took place. Although this bill did not pass, the flood of 1936 made the project more feasible by destroying buildings not historically important and thus freeing land. After several other attempts, a bill creating Harpers Ferry National Monument was passed and signed by President Roosevelt in 1944, subject to

987-664: A company of gentlemen the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, known as the Northern Neck . Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron ultimately took possession of this grant, and in 1746 a stone was erected at the source of the North Branch Potomac River to mark his grant's western limit. George Washington surveyed a considerable part of this land between 1748 and 1751. His diary recorded that there were already many squatters, largely of German origin, along

1128-522: A compromise demanded by the Kanawha region (Charleston lawyers Benjamin Smith and Brown) allowed counties and municipalities to vote subsidies for railroads or other improvement organizations. The resulting instrument was ratified (18,162 for and 514 against) on April 11, 1862. On May 13, 1862, the state legislature of the reorganized government approved the formation of the new state. An application for admission to

1269-511: A constitution for the new state, beginning on November 26, 1861. During that constitutional convention, a Mr. Lamb of Ohio County and a Mr. Carskadon claimed that in Hampshire County, out of 195 votes only 39 were cast by citizens of the state; the rest were cast illegally by Union soldiers. One of the key figures was Gordon Battelle , who also represented Ohio County, and who proposed resolutions to establish public schools, as well as to limit

1410-554: A constitutional convention met in Richmond to consider reforms to Virginia's outdated constitution. Philip Doddridge of Brooke County championed the cause of western Virginians who sought a more democratic frame of government, but western reforms were rejected by leaders from east of the Alleghenies who "clung to political power in an effort to preserve their plantation lifestyles dependent on enslaving blacks". Virginia leaders maintained

1551-526: A convention to meet in Wheeling on May 13, 1861. When this First Wheeling Convention met, 425 delegates from 25 counties were present, though more than one-third of the delegates were from the northern panhandle area. Soon there was a division of sentiment. Some delegates led by pro-Union slaveowner John S. Carlile favored the immediate formation of a new state, while others led by Waitman Willey argued that, as Virginia's secession had not yet been passed by

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1692-402: A family that later built the town's Wager Hotel. The bridge connected the town across the Potomac with Sandy Hook, Maryland , which for a few years in the 1830s was the railroad's western terminus. In 1837, the railroad crossed the Potomac into Harpers Ferry with the opening of the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing . The first railroad junction in the country began service in 1836 when

1833-602: A flat rye bread called "bannock" as they emerged from the protohistoric era. A horizon extending from a little before the early 18th century is sometimes called the acculturating Fireside Cabin culture . Trading posts were established by European traders along the Potomac and James rivers . Tribes that inhabited West Virginia as of 1600 were the Siouan Monongahela Culture to the north, the Fort Ancient culture along

1974-438: A fourth of the registered voters cast votes. In most of what would become West Virginia, there was no vote at all, as two-thirds of the territory of West Virginia had voted for secession, and county officers remained loyal to Richmond. Votes recorded from pro-secession counties were mostly cast elsewhere by Unionist refugees from these counties. Despite that controversy, delegates (including many Methodist ministers) met to write

2115-543: A global scale. The Conservancy strives to heighten awareness via the "ATC's Community Recognition Program" or "Trail Towns" program that recognizes and highlights the communities through which the trail's 2,000 miles run. As well, the ATC's "A Trail To Every Classroom" is a school program that utilized the trail to teach students about conservation, preservation, earth science and ecology. Because The ATC Headquarters in Harpers Ferry

2256-707: A joint resolution recognizing the transfer. The Supreme Court decided in West Virginia's favor in 1870. The original charters for Maryland and Virginia were silent as to which branch of the upper Potomac was the boundary. This was settled by the 1785 Mount Vernon Conference . Nevertheless, when West Virginia seceded from Virginia, Maryland claimed West Virginia land north of the South Branch (all of Mineral and Grant Counties and parts of Hampshire , Hardy , Tucker and Pendleton Counties). The Supreme Court rejected these claims in two separate decisions in 1910. During

2397-500: A popular vote on the formation of a new state and for a convention to frame a constitution if the vote were favorable. In the October 24, 1861, election, 18,408 votes were cast for the new state and 781 against. The election results were questioned since the Union army then occupied the area and Union troops were stationed at many of the polls to prevent Confederate sympathizers from voting. This

2538-480: A property qualification for suffrage , effectively disenfranchising poorer farmers in the west whose families did much of the farm work themselves. In addition, the 1829–30 convention gave slaveholding counties the benefit of three-fifths of their slave population in apportioning the state's representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a result, every county west of the Alleghenies except one voted to reject

2679-619: A provision for the gradual abolition of slavery be inserted in its constitution (as Battelle had urged in the Wheeling Intelligencer and also written to Lincoln). While many felt West Virginia's admission as a state was both illegal and unconstitutional, Lincoln issued his Opinion on the Admission of West Virginia finding that "the body which consents to the admission of West Virginia is the Legislature of Virginia", and that its admission

2820-473: A reunion of 4,000 Odd Fellows in 1880 and a "Grand Tri-State Democratic Mass Meeting" 1892. Thomas Wentworth Higginson , one of the Secret Six who assisted John Brown , chose Harpers Ferry for his honeymoon. The park was large enough that parades could be held. There were a steam-powered ferris wheel and carousel , a midway , a pavilion for dancing or roller skating , swings, a merry-go-round , and

2961-600: A rival state government and two U.S. senators (Willey and Carlile) to replace secessionists before adjourning. The federal government promptly recognized the new government and seated the two new senators. Thus there were two state governments in Virginia: one pledging allegiance to the United States and one to the Confederacy . The second Wheeling Convention had recessed until August 6, then reassembled on August 20 and called for

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3102-519: A tribal trade system culture that crafted cold-worked copper pieces. In the 1670s, during the Beaver Wars , the powerful Iroquois , five allied nations based in present-day New York and Pennsylvania, drove out other Native American tribes from the region to reserve the upper Ohio Valley as a hunting ground. Siouan language tribes, such as the Moneton , had previously been among the earliest recorded in

3243-566: A whole, but in the western counties 34,677 voted against and 19,121 voted for the ordinance. The Second Wheeling Convention met as agreed on June 11 and declared that, since the Secession Convention had been called without popular consent, all its acts were void and all who adhered to it had vacated their offices. The Wheeling Conventions, and the delegates themselves, were never actually elected by public ballot to act on behalf of western Virginia. Of its 103 members, 33 had been elected to

3384-662: Is Charleston with a population of 49,055. West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the American Civil War . It was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, one of two states (along with Nevada ) admitted to the Union during the Civil War, and the second state to separate from another state, after Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820. Some of its residents held slaves, but most were yeoman farmers, and

3525-501: Is bituminous coal , and the official state gemstone is silicified Mississippian fossil Lithostrotionella coral. The limestone also produced a useful quarry industry. Usually small, and softer, high-calcium seams were burned to produce industrial lime. This lime was used for agricultural and construction purposes; for many years a specific portion of the C & O Railroad carried limestone rock to Clifton Forge, Virginia as an industrial flux. Salt mining had been underway since

3666-527: Is a landlocked state in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States . It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast, Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, and Ohio to the northwest. West Virginia is the 10th-smallest state by area and ranks as the 12th-least populous state , with a population of 1,793,716 residents. The capital and most populous city

3807-492: Is located roughly at the halfway point for the Appalachian Trail, a photograph at ATC headquarters is a standard ritual for those hikers intending to walk the entire path. One of the functions of the ATC, as the lead organization in managing and protecting the A.T., is to maintain the official 2,000-miler registry of all those who have completed the A.T. Another, less official function, is the documentation of hikers who reach

3948-641: Is located, was named for him on its creation in 1801. George Washington , as president of the Potomac Company (which was formed to complete river improvements on the Potomac River and its tributaries), traveled to Harpers Ferry during summer 1785 to determine the need for bypass canals . Washington's familiarity with the area led him to propose the site in 1794 for a new armory. His brother, Charles Washington, who founded nearby Charles Town , and his great-great-nephew, Colonel Lewis Washington , both moved to

4089-498: Is not actually worth $ 10," wrote a Massachusetts soldier to his mother in 1863. A visitor in 1878 found the town "antiquated, dingy, and rather squalid"; another, in 1879, described it as "shabby and ruined." Since the Arsenal, Harpers Ferry's largest employer before the war, was never rebuilt, the town's population never recovered to antebellum levels. Storer College , devoted to training teachers for freedmen, opened in 1868, much to

4230-599: Is the easternmost town in West Virginia as well as its lowest point above sea level. Originally named Harper's Ferry after an 18th-century ferry owner, the town lost its apostrophe in 1891 in an update by the United States Board on Geographic Names . It gained fame in 1859 when abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory in a doomed effort to start a slave rebellion in Virginia and across

4371-610: Is the only state entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission ; the area is commonly defined as " Appalachia ". The state is noted for its mountains and rolling hills, its historically significant coal mining and logging industries, and its political and labor history . It is also known for its tourism and a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing , whitewater rafting , fishing , hiking , backpacking , mountain biking , rock climbing , and hunting . From

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4512-582: Is where the North and South met." It was a natural conduit for Confederate invasions of the North, as in General Robert E. Lee 's Maryland campaign of 1862 and Gettysburg campaign of 1863, and for Union troops heading south in their attempts to thwart Rebel forces in the Valley. The town was "easy to seize, and hard to hold", because of its topography: surrounded on three sides by high ground ( Bolivar Heights to

4653-705: The American Revolutionary War . Some speculative land companies, such as the Vandalia Company , the Ohio Company and the Indiana Company , tried but failed to legitimize their claims to land in parts of West Virginia and present-day Kentucky. This rivalry resulted in some settlers petitioning the Continental Congress to create a new territory called Westsylvania . With the federal settlement of

4794-651: The Connecticut leg of the trail. This section is a 50-mile stretch through the northwest corner of the state from Dog Tail Corners in Webatuck, New York, to Bear Mountain at the Massachusetts border. Anderson worked dually as a section manager for both the Connecticut Forest & Park Association and the ATC. With his volunteers, he continued to maintain the trail until his retirement in 1948. Today, that section of

4935-637: The Great Depression to the 1990s, the state voted heavily for the Democratic Party due to its tradition of union-based politics. Since then, the state has become heavily Republican , and is considered a "deep red" state at the federal level. Many ancient manmade earthen mounds from various prehistoric mound builder cultures survive in West Virginia, especially in the areas of present-day Moundsville , South Charleston , and Romney . Artifacts uncovered in these give evidence of village societies with

5076-591: The Industrial Revolution in the U.S. and the steamships of many of the world's navies. The residents (both Native Americans and early European settlers) had long known of the underlying coal, and that it could be used for heating and fuel. However, for a long time, "personal" or artisanal mining was the only practical development. After the War, with the new railroads came a practical method to transport large quantities of coal to expanding U.S. and export markets. As

5217-546: The Maryland side, the later Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad competed for right-of-way on a very narrow patch of land downstream from Harpers Ferry. In 1833, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal reached Harpers Ferry from Washington, D.C. ; a planned western expansion to Ohio was never completed. A year later, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began service from Harpers Ferry via Wager Bridge, named for

5358-574: The Ohio River in 1872 opened access to the New River Coal Field. Soon, the C&;O was building its huge coal pier at Newport News, Virginia , on the large harbor of Hampton Roads . In 1881, the new Philadelphia-based owners of the former Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O), which stretched across Virginia's southern tier from Norfolk , had sights clearly set on West Virginia, where

5499-674: The Pennsylvania and Virginia border dispute , creating Kentucky County, Virginia , Kentuckians "were satisfied [...] and the inhabitants of a large part of West Virginia were grateful." The Crown considered the area of West Virginia part of the British Virginia Colony from 1607 to 1776. The United States considered this area the western part of the state of Virginia (commonly called Trans-Allegheny Virginia ) from 1776 to 1863, before West Virginia's formation. Its residents were discontented for years with their position in Virginia, as

5640-616: The South Branch Potomac River . Christopher Gist , a surveyor in the employ of the first Ohio Company , which was composed chiefly of Virginians, explored the country along the Ohio River north of the mouth of the Kanawha River between 1751 and 1752. The company sought to have a 14th colony established with the name " Vandalia ". Many settlers crossed the mountains after 1750, though they were hindered by Native American resistance. Few Native Americans lived permanently within

5781-514: The Virginia Board of Public Works . Virginians—led by former Confederate general William Mahone —formed a political coalition based upon this: the Readjuster Party . West Virginia's first constitution provided for the assumption of a part of the Virginia debt, but negotiations opened by Virginia in 1870 were fruitless, and in 1871 Virginia funded two-thirds of the debt and arbitrarily assigned

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5922-577: The Virginia Colony , sent a party from Fort Henry led by Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam to survey this territory. They were the first Europeans recorded as discovering Kanawha Falls . Some sources state that Governor Alexander Spotswood 's 1716 Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition (for which the state's Golden Horseshoe Competition for 8th graders is named) had penetrated as far as Pendleton County , but modern historians interpret

6063-601: The Virginia General Assembly granted him the right to establish and maintain a ferry across the Potomac. In 1763, the Virginia General Assembly established the town of "Shenandoah Falls at Mr. Harpers Ferry." Harper died in October 1782, and is buried in the Harper Cemetery. On October 25, 1783, Thomas Jefferson visited Harpers Ferry as he was traveling to Philadelphia . Viewing "the passage of

6204-534: The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 voted to secede from the Union, but of the 49 delegates from the northwestern corner (which ultimately became West Virginia) only 17 voted in favor of the Ordinance of Secession , while 30 voted against (with two abstentions). Almost immediately after that vote, a mass meeting at Clarksburg recommended that each county in northwestern Virginia send delegates to

6345-654: The Winchester and Potomac Railroad opened its line from Harpers Ferry southwest to Charles Town and then to Winchester, Virginia . Virginius Island , which connected the Shenandoah River to the lower part of Harpers Ferry, was created by happenstance in the early 1800s after debris floated down from upstream mills during the construction of the Shenandoah Canal. Cotton, flour mills, and other water-powered companies were developed on Virginius Island, taking advantage of

6486-420: The anthracite mines of northwestern New Jersey and Pennsylvania began to play out during this same time period, investors and industrialists focused new interest in West Virginia. Geologists such as Dr. David T. Ansted surveyed potential coal fields and invested in land and early mining projects. The completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) across the state to the new city of Huntington on

6627-465: The 18th century, though it had largely played out by the time of the American Civil War, when the red salt of Kanawha County was a valued commodity of first Confederate, and later Union, forces. In the years following, more sophisticated mining methods would restore West Virginia's role as a major producer of salt. However, in the second half of the 19th century, there was an even greater treasure not yet developed: bituminous coal . It would fuel much of

6768-431: The 20th century destroyed all structures on the island. Today, visitors can view Virginius Island's historic ruins and walk National Park Service trails. On October 16, 1859, the abolitionist John Brown led a group of 22 men (counting himself) in a raid on the armory. Five of the men were black: three free black men, one freed slave, and one fugitive slave. Brown attacked and captured several buildings, hoping to secure

6909-530: The American Revolution, the movement to create a state beyond the Alleghenies was revived and a petition for the establishment of " Westsylvania " was presented to Congress , on the grounds that the mountains presented an almost impassable barrier to the east. The rugged terrain made slavery unprofitable, and time only increased the social, political, economic, and cultural differences ( see Tuckahoes and Cohees ) between Virginia's two sections. In 1829,

7050-498: The B&;O in 1879 built Island Park Resort and Amusement Park on Byrne Island in the Potomac, which the railroad bought and built a footbridge to reach it. One had to pay 5¢ ($ 5 in 2021 value) to cross and enter, after which rides and other activities were free. Access to the park was also a benefit for B&O employees, as it had done in Relay, Maryland . Among the many events held there were

7191-655: The C&O and N&W presidents thought they could thus kill the Page project, they were to be proved mistaken. One of the silent partner investors Page had enlisted was millionaire industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers , a principal in John D. Rockefeller 's Standard Oil Trust and an old hand at developing natural resources and transportation. A master at competitive "warfare", Henry Rogers did not like to lose in his endeavors and also had "deep pockets" . Instead of giving up, Page (and Rogers) quietly planned and then built their tracks all

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7332-558: The C&O at its line along the Kanawha River and the N&;W at Matoaka —a distance of about 80 miles (130 km). Although the Deepwater plan should have provided a competitive shipping market via either railroad, leaders of the two large railroads did not appreciate the scheme. In secret collusion, each declined to negotiate favorable rates with Page, nor did they offer to purchase his railroad, as they had many other short-lines. However, if

7473-557: The Civil War, Union General George B. McClellan 's forces gained possession of the greater part of the territory in the summer of 1861, culminating at the Battle of Rich Mountain , and Union control was never again seriously threatened. In 1863, General John D. Imboden , with 5,000 Confederates, raided a considerable portion of the state and burned Pierpont's library, although Willey escaped their grasp. Bands of guerrillas burned and plundered in some sections, and were not entirely suppressed until

7614-495: The Continental Army, showed war-weariness in what became West Virginia. Social conditions in western Virginia were entirely unlike those in the eastern part. The population was not homogeneous, as a considerable part of the immigration came by way of Pennsylvania and included Germans, Protestant Scotch-Irish , and settlers from states farther north. Counties in the east and south were settled mostly by eastern Virginians. During

7755-580: The Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry from the Union Army, even before the convention which would consider whether or not the state should secede had been called together. Because of the town's strategic location on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley , both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. It was said that "Jefferson County

7896-472: The General Assembly to reapportion representation based on the white population in 1865, or else put the matter to a public referendum. But the east also gave itself a tax advantage in requiring a property tax at true and actual value, except for slaves. Slaves under age 12 were not taxed and slaves over that age were taxed at only $ 300, a fraction of their true value, but small farmers had all their assets, animals, and land taxed at full value. Despite this tax and

8037-407: The Iroquois. They eventually settled somewhere between the Kanawha and Little Kanawha Rivers. During the 1750s, when the Mingo Seneca seceded from the Iroquois and returned to the Ohio River Valley, they contend that this tribe merged with them. The Shawnee arrived as well; though primarily stationed within former Monongahela territory approximately until 1750, they extended their influence throughout

8178-420: The Murphy family, the location at the time of John Brown's historic "fort," the armory's firehouse. As a result, the fort was soon moved to the Storer campus, where it became the college's central icon. After the college closed in 1955, the National Park Service moved it back to as close as possible to its original location. A 1936 flood left the lower town "shabby and almost uninhabited", with no bridge across

8319-438: The N&W was also shipping from new coal piers at Hampton Roads. In 1889, in the southern part of the state, along the Norfolk and Western rail lines, the important coal center of Bluefield, West Virginia , was founded. The "capital" of the Pocahontas coalfield , this city would remain the largest city in the southern portion of the state for several decades. It shares its name with a sister city, Bluefield , in Virginia. In

8460-415: The Ohio River from the Monongahela to Kentucky and extending an unknown distance inland, and the Eastern Siouan Tutelo and Moneton tribes in the southeast. There was also the Iroquoian Susquehannock in the region approximately east of the Monongahela River and north of the Monongahela National Forest, a possible tribe called the Senandoa, or Shenandoah, in the Shenandoah Valley and the easternmost tip of

8601-409: The Ohio River region. They were West Virginia's last Native tribe and were driven out by the United States during the Shawnee Wars (1811–1813). The Erie, who were chased out of Ohio around 1655, are now believed to be the same as the Westo , who invaded as far as South Carolina before being destroyed in the 1680s. If so, their path would have brought them through West Virginia. The historical movement of

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8742-416: The Potomac through the Blue Ridge " from a rock that is now named for him as Jefferson's Rock, he called the site "perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature" and stated, "This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." The town was one of his favorite retreats, and tradition holds that much of his Notes on the State of Virginia was written there. Jefferson County , in which Harpers Ferry

8883-438: The Shattaras, or West Virginia Cherokees. They took in and merged with the Monetons, who began to call themselves the Mohetons. The Calicua also began to call themselves Cherokees soon after, showing an apparent further merger. These Shattaras were closely related to the tribes that formed to the south in the aftermath of the Westo—the Yuchi and Cherokee. From 1715 to 1717, the Yamasee War sprang up. The Senandoa allegedly sided with

9024-411: The Shawnee returned to war, joining the Chickamauga , a band of Cherokee known for the area where they lived. Native American attacks on settlers continued until after the American Revolutionary War . During the war, the settlers in western Virginia were generally active Whigs ; many served in the Continental Army . Claypool's Rebellion of 1780–1781, in which a group of men refused to pay taxes to

9165-412: The Shenandoah River's water power and good routes to markets. The island came to house all of Harpers Ferry's manufacturing, except for the armory, which used the Potomac River for power, and its rifle plant, some distance upstream using the Shenandoah's power. At its antebellum peak, some 180 people lived on Virginius Island, including workers who lived in a boarding house and in row houses . Floods in

9306-495: The Shenandoah to Virginia and no highway bridge to Maryland. All remaining structures on Virginius Island were destroyed. The backbone of the effort to preserve and commemorate Harpers Ferry was Henry T. MacDonald, President of Storer, an amateur historian appointed by West Virginia Governor Okey Patteson as head of the Harpers Ferry National Monument Commission. He was assisted by the Representative from West Virginia's Second District, Jennings Randolph , who in 1935 introduced

9447-454: The South. During the American Civil War , the town became the northernmost point of Confederate -controlled territory, and changed hands several times due to its strategic importance. An antebellum manufacturing and transportation hub, Harpers Ferry has long since reoriented its economy around tourism after being largely destroyed during the Civil War. Harpers Ferry is home to John Brown's Fort , West Virginia's most visited tourist site;

9588-477: The Susquehanna River of Eastern Pennsylvania. The Manahoac were probably forced out in the 1680s when the Iroquois began to invade Virginia. The Siouan tribes there moved into North Carolina and later returned as one tribe, known as the Eastern Blackfoot, or Christannas. The Westo did not secure the territory they conquered. Even before they were gone, displaced natives from the south flooded into freshly conquered regions and took them over. These became known as

9729-411: The Tidewater and Piedmont slaveholders' political dominance. In addition to differences over slavery, he and allies felt the Virginia government ignored and refused to spend funds on needed internal improvements in the west, such as turnpikes and railroads. West Virginia was the only state in the Union to separate from a Confederate state ( Virginia ) during the Civil War. In Richmond on April 17, 1861,

9870-459: The Tutelo and carbon dating of the Fort Ancients seem to correspond with the given period of 1655–1670 as the time of their removal. The Susquehannocks were original participants in the Beaver Wars but were cut off from the Ohio River by the Iroquois around 1630 and found themselves in dire straits. Suffering from disease and constant warfare and unable to provide for themselves financially, they began to collapse and moved further and further east, to

10011-427: The Union again had control of Harpers Ferry. On July 4, 1864, Union general Franz Sigel withdrew his troops to Maryland Heights, from which he resisted Jubal Early 's attempt to enter the town and drive out the federal garrison. Inspired by John Brown's raid, both runaway and freed slaves came to Harpers Ferry during and after the American Civil War . This created social tensions between white and black residents of

10152-573: The Union was made to Congress, introduced by Senator Waitman Willey of the Restored Government of Virginia. Carlile sought to sabotage the bill, first trying to expand the new state's boundaries to include the Shenandoah Valley, and then to defeat the Willey amendment at home. On December 31, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln approved an enabling act admitting West Virginia on the condition that

10293-574: The Virginia General Assembly on May 23. This included some hold-over state senators whose four-year terms had begun in 1859, and some who vacated their offices to convene in Wheeling. Other members "were chosen even more irregularly—some in mass meetings, others by county committee, and still others were seemingly self-appointed". An act for the reorganization of the government was passed on June 19. The next day, convention delegates chose Francis H. Pierpont as governor of Virginia and elected other officers to

10434-600: The Yuchi and were destroyed by Yamasee allies. Therefore, if the Senandoa were the same tribe as the Moneton, this would mean the collapse of Shattara-Moneton culture. Another tribe that appeared in the region was the Canaragay, or Kanawha. It later migrated to Maryland and merged into colonial culture. In 1671, General Abraham Wood , at the direction of Royal Governor William Berkeley of

10575-462: The area. In 1796, the federal government purchased a 125-acre (0.5 km ) parcel of land from the heirs of Robert Harper. Construction began on what would become the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1799. It is referred to locally as both "the armory" and "the arsenal," but it is the same facility. This was the second of only two such facilities in the United States,

10716-495: The area. Conflicts with European settlers resulted in various displaced Native tribes settling in West Virginia, where they were known as Mingo , meaning "remote affiliates of the Iroquois Confederacy". The area now identified as West Virginia was contested territory among Anglo-Americans as well, with the colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia claiming territorial rights under their colonial charters to this area before

10857-509: The armory between 1820 and 1840. His M1819 Hall rifle was the first breech-loading weapon adopted by the U.S. Army. Harpers Ferry's first man-made transportation facility was the Potomac Canal . The canal ceased transportation in 1828, but a portion of it in front of the town channeled river water to run machinery for the armory. The Potomac Canal ran on the Virginia side of the river. On

10998-412: The attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since." The American Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, where five battles took place; it changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. (Another article says it changed hands twelve times. ) One of the first military actions by secessionists in Virginia was taken on April 18, 1861, when they wrested control of

11139-432: The border between West Virginia and Virginia includes the "Saltpeter Trail", a string of limestone caverns containing rich deposits of calcium nitrate which were rendered and sold to the government. The trail stretched from Pendleton County to the western terminus of the route in the town of Union , Monroe County . Nearly half of these caves are on the West Virginia side, including Organ Cave and Haynes Cave . In

11280-716: The border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Huntington in the southwest is close to Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the eastern panhandle region are considered part of the Washington metropolitan area, between Maryland and Virginia. West Virginia is often included in several U.S. geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South , and the Southeastern United States . It

11421-408: The campus of Storer College , a primarily Black college that operated until 1955. (After it closed, the campus became part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.) The three-day gathering, which was held to work for civil rights for African Americans , was later described by DuBois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held". Attendees walked from Storer College to the farm of

11562-403: The community and generated a growing need for services for the increasing African-American population. Accordingly, a freedman's school was opened on Camp Hill by Freewill Baptist missionaries following the American Civil War. The town and the armory, with the exception of John Brown's Fort , were destroyed during the war. "The larger portion of the houses all lie in ruins and the whole place

11703-473: The confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and established a ferry across the Potomac from Virginia (now West Virginia ) to Maryland . Robert Harper, from whom the town takes its name, was born in 1718 in Oxford Township , Pennsylvania , now part of Philadelphia . Since he was a builder, Harper was asked by a group of Quakers in 1747 to build a meeting house in the Shenandoah Valley near

11844-523: The constitution, which nevertheless passed because of eastern support. The eastern planter elite's failure to make constitutional reforms exacerbated existing east–west sectionalism in Virginia and contributed to its division. The Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850–51 , the Reform Convention, addressed a number of issues important to western Virginians. It extended the vote to all white males 21 years or older. The governor, lieutenant governor,

11985-517: The constitutional amendment of 1866 was abrogated. Republicans had taken the first steps toward this change in 1870. On August 22, 1872, an entirely new constitution was adopted. Beginning in Reconstruction , and for several decades thereafter, the two states disputed the new state's share of the prewar Virginia government's debts, which had mostly been incurred to finance public infrastructure improvements, such as canals, roads, and railroads under

12126-411: The delegates provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in the new state constitution. The state legislature abolished slavery in the state, and at the same time ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationally on February 3, 1865. West Virginia's northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio to form a tristate area , with Wheeling , Weirton , and Morgantown just across

12267-549: The displeasure of many residents of Harpers Ferry who petitioned the Legislature to revoke its charter. The War Department gave the Freedmen's Bureau its remaining assets in Harpers Ferry, principally four sturdy residences for the managers of the Armory, structurally sound but in need of repairs from damage during the war, and the Bureau gave them to Storer College. A one-room school for Blacks

12408-632: The first being in Springfield, Massachusetts . Together they produced most of the small arms for the U.S. Army. The town was transformed into a water-powered industrial center. Between 1801 and 1861, when the armory was destroyed to prevent capture during the American Civil War , it produced more than 600,000 muskets, rifles, and pistols. Inventor Captain John H. Hall pioneered the use of interchangeable parts in firearms manufactured at his rifle works at

12549-484: The fort. It was dismantled and moved to Chicago for display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition . Abandoned there, it was rescued and moved back to Harpers Ferry by the Baltimore and Ohio without charge, motivated by their expectation that having the fort back in Harpers Ferry would be a tourist attraction and a way to build ridership on the railroad. But most whites were opposed to any commemoration of John Brown, and it

12690-546: The government was dominated by the planter elite of the Tidewater and Piedmont areas. The legislature had electoral malapportionment, based on the counting of slaves toward regional populations, and western white residents were underrepresented in the state legislature. More subsistence and yeoman farmers lived in the west, and they were generally less supportive of slavery, although many counties were divided on their support. Residents of that area became more sharply divided after

12831-460: The great struggle which ended in the 'opening of the prison doors, the breaking of every yoke, the undoing of heavy burdens, and letting the oppressed go free." Storer, the only Black college at a location historically important to African-Americans, became a center of the civil rights movement and built the town's importance as a destination for Black tourists and excursionists. Douglass spoke there in 1881, as part of an unsuccessful campaign to fund

12972-417: The halfway point. These hikers, whether hiking Northbound, Southbound, or Section hiking (completing portions in multiple trips) almost universally stop by the ATC headquarters for a few minutes. Having a simple Polaroid under the ATC sign after hiking 1,000 miles is a milestone anticipated by many hikers. The pictures are signed and numbered in the order the hikers arrive. Although hikers are not entered into

13113-667: The headquarters of the Appalachian Trail , whose midpoint is nearby; the former campus of Storer College , a historically black college established during Reconstruction ; and one of four national training centers of the National Park Service . Much of the lower town, which was in ruins by the end of the Civil War and ravaged by subsequent floods, has been rebuilt and preserved by the National Park Service. In 1733, squatter Peter Stephens settled on land near

13254-632: The historic area, and especially Virginius Island, John Brown's Fort was moved to Arsenal Square from a now-inconvenient location on the former Storer College campus, parking in the lower town was prohibited, and a shuttle bus service begun. Tensions between the NPS and town residents were ongoing. However, the NPS helped the town achieve Main Street Status from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2001. West Virginia West Virginia

13395-469: The judiciary, sheriffs, and other county officers were to be elected by public vote. The General Assembly's composition was changed. Representation in the House of Delegates was apportioned based on the census of 1850, counting whites only. The Senate representation was arbitrarily fixed at 50 seats, with the west receiving 20 senators and the east 30. This was made acceptable to the west by a provision that required

13536-408: The lack of internal improvements in the west, the vote was 75,748 for and 11,063 against the new constitution. Most of the opposition came from delegates from eastern counties, who did not like the compromises made for the west. Given these differences, many in the west had long contemplated a separate state. In particular, men such as lawyer Francis H. Pierpont from Fairmont had long chafed under

13677-474: The late 18th century, saltpeter miners in Haynes Cave found large animal bones in the deposits. These were sent by a local historian and frontier soldier Colonel John Stuart to Thomas Jefferson . The bones were named Megalonyx jeffersonii , or great-claw, and became known as Jefferson's three-toed sloth. It was declared the official state fossil of West Virginia in 2008. The West Virginia official state rock

13818-517: The law, said if it was not enacted he would lose the election by 500 votes. Confederates' property might also be confiscated, and in 1866 a constitutional amendment disfranchising all who had given aid and comfort to the Confederacy was adopted. The addition of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution caused a reaction. The Democratic party secured control in 1870, and in 1871

13959-588: The lifestyles of its residents, who tended to live in many small, relatively isolated communities in the mountain valleys. A 2010 analysis of a local stalagmite revealed that Native Americans were burning forests to clear land as early as 100   BCE. Some regional late-prehistoric Eastern Woodland tribes were more involved in hunting and fishing, practicing the Eastern Agricultural Complex gardening method which used fire to clear out underbrush from certain wooded areas. Another group progressed to

14100-572: The lower town was "a sagging and rotted ghost town." The idea of making Harpers Ferry into a National Monument was to prevent the further deterioration and to rebuild the tourist industry. The first task of the Park Service was to stabilize the buildings on Shenandoah Street, the main commercial street of lower Harpers Ferry. Roofs were covered, missing windows replaced, walls on the verge of collapse reinforced, and debris removed. Post-1859 buildings were not restored, and most were removed. The NPS built

14241-551: The more time-consuming, advanced companion crop fields method of gardening. Also continuing from the ancient Indigenous people of the state, they cultivated tobacco through to early historic times. It was used in numerous social and religious rituals. " Maize (corn) did not make a substantial contribution to the diet until after 1150 BP ", to quote Mills (OSU 2003). Eventually, tribal villages began depending on corn to feed their turkey flocks, as Kanawha Fort Ancients practiced bird husbandry . The local Natives made cornbread and

14382-608: The mountains. A body of militia under then-Colonel Andrew Lewis dealt the Shawnee Natives , under Hokoleskwa (or "Cornstalk"), a crushing blow during the Battle of Point Pleasant at the junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio rivers. At the Treaty of Camp Charlotte concluding Dunmore's War , Cornstalk agreed to recognize the Ohio River as the new boundary with the " Long Knives ". But by 1776

14523-400: The movement of slaves into the new state, and to gradually abolish slavery. The education proposal succeeded, but the convention tabled the slavery proposals before finishing its work on February 18, 1862. The new constitution was more closely modeled on Ohio's than Virginia's, adopting a township model of government rather than the " courthouse cliques " of Virginia which Carlile criticized, and

14664-618: The northern portion of the state and elsewhere, the older Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) and other lines also expanded to take advantage of coal opportunities. The B&O developed coal piers in Baltimore and at several points on the Great Lakes . Other significant rail carriers of coal were the Western Maryland Railway (WM), Southern Railway (SOU), and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N). Particularly notable

14805-552: The official 2,000-miler registry until completing the full Appalachian Trail, the ritual is nonetheless a memorable recognition of their progress. Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County , West Virginia , in the lower Shenandoah Valley . The town's population was 269 at the 2020 United States census . Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where Maryland , Virginia , and West Virginia meet, it

14946-523: The original accounts of the excursion as suggesting that none of the expedition's horsemen ventured much farther west of the Blue Ridge Mountains than Harrisonburg, Virginia . John Van Metre, a Native trader, penetrated into the northern portion in 1725. The same year, German settlers from Pennsylvania founded New Mecklenburg, the present Shepherdstown , on the Potomac River , and others followed. King Charles II of England , in 1661, granted to

15087-425: The owners had large landholdings. Their railroad was renamed Norfolk and Western (N&W), and a new railroad city was developed at Roanoke to handle planned expansion. After its new president Frederick J. Kimball and a small party journeyed by horseback and saw firsthand the rich bituminous coal seam, which Kimball's wife named Pocahontas , the N&W redirected its planned westward expansion to reach it. Soon,

15228-473: The planter elite of eastern Virginia voted to secede from the Union during the Civil War. Residents of the western and northern counties set up a separate government under Francis Pierpont in 1861, which they called the Restored Government . Most voted to separate from Virginia, and the new state was admitted to the Union in 1863. In 1864 a state constitutional convention drafted a constitution, which

15369-471: The present site of Winchester, Virginia . Traveling through Maryland on his way to the Shenandoah Valley, Harper—who was also a millwright —realized the potential of the latent waterpower from the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at their confluence. He paid Stephens 30 guineas for his squatting rights to the ferry, since the land actually belonged to Lord Fairfax . Harper then purchased 126 acres (0.51 km ) of land from Lord Fairfax in 1751. In 1761,

15510-490: The project was supported both by Harpers Ferry mayor Gilbert Perry and Governor Patteson. Twenty-two eviction notices were served in the lower town, and two taverns closed. Property acquisition, not all of which was unproblematic, was completed in 1952 and presented to the United States in January 1953. The National Monument's first on-site employee, John T. Willett, began work in 1954. In 1957, The Baltimore Sun reported that

15651-543: The proviso that nothing would be done with it until the war ended. An urgent priority was the new highway, which is today U.S. Route 340 . A new bridge connecting Sandy Hook, Maryland with Loudoun County, Virginia opened in October 1947, on which work had begun in 1941 but was interrupted by the war. Another new bridge over the Shenandoah connecting Virginia to Bolivar Heights, West Virginia , opened two years later. Federal highway traffic now bypassed Harpers Ferry entirely. Land acquisition started in lower Harpers Ferry;

15792-539: The raid. John Brown's men were quickly pinned down by local citizens and militia , and forced to take refuge in the fire engine house (later called John Brown's Fort ), at the entrance to the armory. The Secretary of War asked the Navy Department for a unit of United States Marines from the Washington Navy Yard , the nearest troops. Lieutenant Israel Greene was ordered to take a force of 86 Marines to

15933-653: The raiders, killing a few and suffering a single casualty. Lee submitted a report on October 19. Brown was quickly tried in Charles Town , the county seat of Jefferson County , for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and fomenting a slave insurrection. Convicted of all charges, with Starry's testimony integral to the conviction, he was hanged on December 2. (See Virginia v. John Brown .) John Brown's words, both from his interview by Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise and his famous last speech , "captured

16074-504: The remainder to West Virginia. The issue was finally settled in 1915 , when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $ 12,393,929.50. The final installment of this sum was paid in 1939. After Reconstruction , the new 35th state benefited from the development of its mineral resources more than any other single economic activity. Saltpeter caves had been employed throughout Appalachia for munitions;

16215-490: The remaining Virginia counties within the federal lines. The question of the constitutionality of the formation of the new state was later brought before the Supreme Court of the United States in Virginia v. West Virginia . Berkeley and Jefferson counties, lying on the Potomac east of the mountains, voted in favor of annexation to West Virginia in 1863, with the consent of Virginia's reorganized government. Many voters of

16356-450: The required referendum (as happened on May 23), such action would constitute revolution against the United States. The convention decided that if Virginians adopted the secession ordinance (of which there was little doubt), another convention including the members-elect of the legislature would meet in Wheeling in June 1861. On May 23, 1861, secession was ratified by a large majority in Virginia as

16497-466: The site open after that for picnicking. The bandstand, the only surviving structure, has been moved twice. At the park's closing, it was moved to Arsenal Square (the current location of John Brown's Fort ), then later to the park at Washington and Gilmore Streets. It is referred to as The Bandstand or the Town Gazebo , and many civic, cultural, and recreational activities take place there. The bridge

16638-625: The spot where they once stood. The old Arsenal has been burnt to the ground; that part of the building where old John Brown made such a fatal stand, still stands as a monument to his memory. Before the destruction of the town, it contained near 3000 inhabitants, but at the present time there are not more than 300 or 400 families there. In the account of Joseph George Rosengarten , Harpers Ferry and nearby Bolivar , in 1859 "a blooming garden-spot, full of thrift and industry and comfort," had been reduced to "waste and desolation" by 1862. The town's garrison of federal troops attracted 1,500 contrabands by

16779-618: The state may have been home to the Manahoac people. The Monongahela may have been the same as a people known as the Calicua, or Cali. The following may have also all been the same tribe—Moneton, Moheton, Senandoa, Tomahitan. During the Beaver Wars, other tribes moved into the region. The Iroquoian Tiontatecaga (also Little Mingo, Guyandotte) seem to have split off from the Petun after they were defeated by

16920-668: The state's present limits, but the region was a common hunting ground, crossed by many trails. During the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War in Europe),Native allies of the French nearly destroyed the scattered British settlements. Shortly before the American Revolutionary War , in 1774 Crown Governor of Virginia John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore , led a force over

17061-508: The strongly pro-secessionist counties were absent in the Confederate Army when the vote was taken and refused to acknowledge the transfer when they returned. The Virginia General Assembly repealed the act of secession and in 1866 brought suit against West Virginia asking the court to declare the counties part of Virginia, which would have made West Virginia's admission as a state unconstitutional. Meanwhile, on March 10, 1866, Congress passed

17202-534: The summer Storer rented rooms to Black vacationers until 1896. The fort was the great monument where the end of slavery began. There were so many tourists that they were a nuisance to the farmer on whose lands the fort sat, and so it was moved to Storer in 1909. There it would remain until several years after the college closed in 1955, functioning as the College Museum. Male students practiced their public-speaking skills by giving tours of it. To increase ridership,

17343-464: The summer of 1862. They were returned to slavery, however, when Confederate General Stonewall Jackson took Harpers Ferry in September 1862. Lee needed to control Harpers Ferry because it was on his supply line and could cut off his possible routes of retreat if captured. Therefore. Lee divided his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, sending three columns under Jackson to surround and capture

17484-465: The surrender at Harpers Ferry was the largest surrender of U.S. military personnel until the Battle of Bataan in 1942. Because of the delay in capturing the town and the movement of federal forces to the west, Lee was forced to regroup at the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland . Two days later he commanded troops in the Battle of Antietam , which had the highest number of deaths among troops of any single day in United States military history. By July 1864,

17625-513: The town. The Battle of Harpers Ferry started with light fighting September 13 as the Confederates tried to capture the Maryland Heights to the northeast, while John Walker moved back over the Potomac to capture Loudoun Heights south of town. After a Confederate artillery bombardment on September 14 and 15, the federal garrison surrendered. With Jackson's capture of 12,419 federal troops,

17766-470: The town. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee was found on leave at his home not far away in Arlington, Virginia , and was assigned as commander, along with Lt. J. E. B. Stuart as his aide-de-camp . Lee led the unit in civilian clothes, as none of his uniforms were available. The contingent arrived by train on October 18, and after negotiations failed, they stormed the fire house and captured most of

17907-626: The trail is maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club . The ATC is committed not only to trail maintenance and large-scale landscape conservation, but also to education, science, and awareness. The trail's size, uniqueness, and environmental effects of it and on it can provide valuable insights and advances for science and ecology. The ATC currently has a MEGA-Transect scientific study underway, which will use data collected (species of flora, fauna, wildlife, weather/climate effects and more) to provide critical information toward preservation on

18048-452: The war ended. The eastern panhandle counties were more affected by the war, with military control of the area repeatedly changing hands. The area that became West Virginia actually furnished about an equal number of soldiers to the Union and Confederate armies, about 22,000–25,000 each. In 1865, the Wheeling government found it necessary to strip voting rights from returning Confederates in order to retain control. James Ferguson, who proposed

18189-429: The way east across Virginia, using Rogers' private fortune to finance the $ 40 million cost. When the renamed Virginian Railway (VGN) was completed in 1909, no fewer than three railroads were shipping ever-increasing volumes of coal to export from Hampton Roads. West Virginia coal was also in high demand at Great Lakes ports. The VGN and the N&W ultimately became parts of the modern Norfolk Southern system, and

18330-518: The weapons depot and arm the slaves, starting a revolt across the South. Brown also brought 1,000 steel pikes, which were forged in Connecticut by a blacksmith and abolitionist sympathizer, Charles Blair; however, the pikes, a weapon that does not require training, were never used as Brown failed to rally the slaves to revolt. The first shot of the raid mortally wounded Heyward Shepherd , a free black man who

18471-455: The west, Loudoun Heights to the south, and Maryland Heights to the east) and the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, anyone who controlled the heights controlled the city. The war's effect on the town was devastating. It was described in March 1862: Harper's Ferry presents quite a gloomy picture. The best buildings have been shelled to the ground, and nothing now remains but their foundations to mark

18612-432: Was a baggage porter for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . The noise from that shot alerted Dr. John Starry shortly after 1 am. He walked from his nearby home to investigate the shooting and was confronted by Brown's men. Starry stated that he was a doctor but could do nothing more for Shepherd, and the men allowed him to leave. Starry then went to the livery and rode to neighboring towns and villages, alerting residents to

18753-642: Was a latecomer, the Virginian Railway (VGN). By 1900, only the most rugged terrain of southern West Virginia was any distance from the existing railroads and mining activity. Within this area west of the New River Coalfield in Raleigh and Wyoming counties lay the Winding Gulf Coalfield , later promoted as the "Billion Dollar Coalfield". A protégé of Dr. Ansted was William Nelson Page (1854–1932),

18894-471: Was already operating in one of them. As early as 1878, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran excursion trains to Harpers Ferry from Baltimore and Washington. As described in a newspaper in 1873: "One need only to alight from the train and look a little envious toward the old Engine House or the ruined walls of the old Arsenal in order to have a score of persons offering to become a kind of guide or to point out to your whatever you may desire to know about

19035-465: Was also election day for local offices, and elections were also held in camps of Confederate soldiers, who elected rival state officials, such as Robert E. Cowan . Most pro-statehood votes came from 16 counties around the northern panhandle. Over 50,000 votes had been cast on the Ordinance of Secession, yet the vote on statehood garnered little more than 19,000. In Ohio County, home to Wheeling, only about

19176-507: Was complete. The entire trail was connected in 1937, though almost every section has been relocated from their original locations to improve footpath sustainability or provide better protection from development or encroachments. The ATC was formed in Washington, D.C. , on March 2 and 3, 1925, with Major Welch as chairman and Torrey as treasurer. In 1927, Welch was replaced by Judge Arthur Perkins and in 1928, J. Ashton Allis became Treasurer. In 1929, Perkins recruited Ned Anderson to blaze

19317-456: Was destroyed by flooding in 1896, as was a replacement bridge in 1924. The remaining structures on the island were destroyed in a 1942 flood. On August 15, 1906, Black author and scholar W. E. B. Du Bois led the first meeting on American soil of the new Niagara Movement . Named after the site of its initial meeting in Fort Erie, Ontario , Canada on the Niagara River , the movement met on

19458-475: Was placed on a nearby farm. Visits by tourists, many of them Black, now began to slowly turn the town into a real tourist center and return it to growth. "Harpers Ferry proved to be one of the most visited places of leisure for nineteenth-century African Americans." There was a Black-owned hotel, the Hill Top House , built and run by a Storer graduate, Thomas Lovett, but it catered only to white clientele. In

19599-578: Was publicized by Raymond H. Torrey with a story in the New York Evening Post under a full page banner headline reading "A Great Trail from Maine to Georgia!"; the trail component of MacKaye's proposal was quickly adopted by the new Palisades Interstate Park Trail Conference as their main project, and on January 4, 1924, the first twenty-mile (32 km) stretch from the Hudson to the Ramapo Rivers

19740-416: Was ratified by the legislature without putting it to popular vote. West Virginia abolished slavery by a gradual process and temporarily disenfranchised those who had held Confederate office or fought for the Confederacy. West Virginia's history has been profoundly affected by its mountainous terrain, numerous and vast river valleys, and rich natural resources. These were all factors driving its economy and

19881-515: Was therefore both constitutional and expedient. The convention was reconvened on February 12, 1863, and the abolition demand of the federal enabling act was met. The revised constitution was adopted on March 26, 1863, and on April 20, 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting the state 60 days later on June 20, 1863. Meanwhile, officers for the new state were chosen, while Pierpont moved his pro-Union Virginia capital to Union-occupied Alexandria , where he asserted and exercised jurisdiction over all

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