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92-601: Blackwater Falls State Park is located in the Allegheny Mountains of Tucker County , West Virginia , US. The centerpiece of the park is Blackwater Falls , a 62-foot (19 m) cascade where the Blackwater River leaves its leisurely course in Canaan Valley and enters rugged Blackwater Canyon . It is among the most photographed venues in the state and appears on calendars, stationery, and advertisements. The river

184-408: A stroke . In March 2006, Underwood suffered a minor stroke and was hospitalized several times after that. In early 2008, Underwood suffered a major stroke and lost the ability to formulate speech; he later had a severe blood infection. In June, he was admitted to a nursing facility before returning to his Charleston residence, where he received round-the-clock care. On November 23, Underwood

276-496: A cave bat . Bobcat , snowshoe hare , wild boar and black bear and coyote are also found in the forests and parks of the Alleghenies. Mink and beaver are much less often seen. These mountains and plateau have over 20 species of reptiles represented as lizard, skink, turtle and snake. Some of the icterid birds visit the mountains as well as the hermit thrush and wood thrush . North American migrant birds live throughout

368-549: A dispute over the extent of lands belonging to either Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron or to the English Privy Council . An expedition of 1736 by John Savage established the location of the source of the North Branch Potomac River . In March 1742, a frontiersman named John Howard—along with his son and others—had been commissioned by Governor Gooch to explore the southwest of Virginia as far as

460-654: A lesser extent, British stock. The Braddock Road was superseded by the Cumberland Road —also called the National Road—one of the first major improved highways in the United States to be built by the federal government . Construction began in 1811 at Cumberland and the road reached Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River in 1818. Just to the south, the state-funded Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike

552-599: A little over seven dozen cave invertebrates. The indigenous people inhabiting the Allegheny Mountains emerged from the greater region's archaic and mound building cultures , particularly the Adena and Eastern Woodland peoples with a later Hopewellian influence. These Late Middle Woodland culture people have been called the Montaine (c. A.D. 500 to 1000) culture. Their neighbors, the woodland Buck Garden culture, lived in

644-556: A lower Greenbrier Valley map during the earlier decades of the 18th century. As early as 1719, new arrivals from Europe began to cross the lower Susquehanna River and settle illegally in defiance of the Board of Property in Pennsylvania, on un-warranted land of the northeastern drainage rivers of the Allegheny Mountains. Several Indian Nations requested the removal of "Maryland Intruders". Some of these moved onward as territory opened up beyond

736-530: A major disaster relief effort. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries. After the flood, survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault -based regime to strict liability . In the 1920s and '30s, Allegheny highways were extensively paved to provide access for automobiles. From

828-541: A master's degree from West Virginia University . At the age of 22, Underwood entered politics by running as a Republican for the West Virginia House of Delegates , winning six terms from 1944 to 1956. He served as House Minority Leader in 1949, 1951, 1953 and 1955. Underwood's 1956 election as Governor of West Virginia marked the first election of a Republican to the office since 1928. He had defeated Charleston Mayor John T. Copenhaver by only 7,200 votes in

920-665: A military trail— Braddock Road —was blazed and opened by the Ohio Company in 1751. (It followed an earlier Indian and pioneer trail known as Nemacolin's Path .) Braddock Road connected Cumberland, Maryland (the upper limit of navigation on the Potomac River) and the forks of the Ohio River (the future Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ). It received its name from the British leader of the French and Indian War (1754–63), General Edward Braddock , who led

1012-698: A portion of the Eastern Continental Divide in this area. A number of impressive gorges and valleys drain the Alleghenies: to the east, Smoke Hole Canyon ( South Branch Potomac River ), and to the west the New River Gorge and the Blackwater and Cheat Canyons . Thus, about half the precipitation falling on the Alleghenies makes its way west to the Mississippi and half goes east to Chesapeake Bay and

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1104-562: A possible Fort Ancient (c. AD 850 to 1680) presence during the 15th century. Washington Boro ceramics have been found on the Barton (18AG3) and Llewellyn (18AG26) sites in Maryland on the northeastern slopes of the late Susquehannock sequence. The early Monongahela (c. AD 900 to 1630) are called the Drew Tradition in Pennsylvania. According to archeologist Richard L. George: "I believe that some of

1196-601: Is at the Mason–Dixon line and the southern is at the West Virginia-Virginia border on Peters Mountain . The bedrock of the Alleghenies is mostly sandstone and metamorphosed sandstone, quartzite , which is extremely resistant to weathering. Prominent beds of resistant conglomerate can be found in some areas, such as the Dolly Sods . When it weathers, it leaves behind a pure white quartzite gravel. The rock layers of

1288-616: Is managed by the U.S. Forest Service .) The Alleghenies also include a number of federally designated wilderness areas , such as the Dolly Sods Wilderness , Laurel Fork Wilderness , and Cranberry Wilderness in West Virginia. The mostly completed Allegheny Trail , a project of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association since 1975, runs the length of the range within West Virginia. The northern terminus

1380-522: Is named for its tannin -darkened water. Blackwater Falls State Park is located about two miles (3 km) southwest of Davis . It protects 2,358 acres (954 ha) of red spruce and eastern hemlock upland forest. (Other important tree species in the park include yellow birch , American beech , red maple and black cherry .) The "Great Falls" of Blackwater River 39°06′49″N 79°28′59″W  /  39.1135°N 79.483°W  / 39.1135; -79.483 drop about 62 feet (19 m) at

1472-531: Is still served by a rather sparse secondary highway system and remains considerably lower in population density than surrounding regions. In the telecommunications field, a unique impediment to development in the central Allegheny region is the United States National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), a large rectangle of land—about 13,000 square miles (34,000 km )—that straddles the border area of Virginia and West Virginia. Created in 1958 by

1564-654: The Allegheny Front . In the west, they slope down into the closely associated Allegheny Plateau , which extends into Ohio and Kentucky . The principal settlements of the Alleghenies are Altoona , State College , and Johnstown, Pennsylvania ; and Cumberland, Maryland . Using the USGS classification of physical geography ( physiography ), the Allegheny Mountain range is part of the Appalachian Plateau province of

1656-570: The Appalachian Highlands physiographic division. The name is derived from the Allegheny River , which drains only a small portion of the Alleghenies in west-central Pennsylvania. The meaning of the word, which comes from the Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans, is not definitively known but is usually translated as "fine river". The closest approximation which makes sense is some context from

1748-613: The Federal Communications Commission , the NRQZ severely restricts all omnidirectional and high-power radio transmissions, although cell phone service is allowed throughout much of the area. Much of the Monongahela (West Virginia), George Washington (West Virginia, Virginia) and Jefferson (Virginia) National Forests lie within the Allegheny Mountains. (No part of the wooded Alleghenies in Maryland or Pennsylvania, however,

1840-618: The Interstate Highway System was extended into the northern portion of the Alleghenies, and the region is now served by a network of federal expressways— Interstates 80 , 70 / 76 and 68 . Interstate 64 traverses the southern extremity of the range, but the Central Alleghenies (the "High Alleghenies" of eastern West Virginia) have posed special problems for highway planners owing to the region's very rugged terrain and environmental sensitivities (see Corridor H ). This region

1932-605: The Iroquois , Shawnee , Delaware , Catawba and others, for purposes of trade , hunting and, especially, warfare . Western Virginia " Cherokee " were reported at Cherokee Falls , today's Valley Falls of the Tygart Valley . Indian trader Charles Poke's trading post dates from 1731 with the Calicuas of Cherokee Falls still in the region from the previous century. The "London Scribes" (The Crown's taxation records) vaguely mentions

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2024-806: The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad , the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Pennsylvania Canal system. Lying astride the border separating the Union and Confederacy , the Alleghenies were among the areas most directly affected by the American Civil War (1861–1865). One of the earliest campaigns of the War was fought for control of the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike and for the access it provided to

2116-567: The Riviere de la Ronceverte . The " Kanawha Madonna " may date from this period or earlier. Where the New River breaks through Peters' Mountain, near Pearisburg Virginia the 1671 journal mentions the "Moketans had formerly lived". According to a number of early 17th century maps, the Messawomeake or "Mincquas" (Dutch) occupied the northern Allegheny Mountains. The "Shatteras" (an ancient Tutelo) occupied

2208-474: The ecosystems within the Alleghenies are remarkably varied. In recent decades, the many stages of ecologic succession throughout the area have made the region one of enduring interest to botanists. The larger megafauna which once inhabited the High Alleghenies— elk , bison , mountain lion —were all exterminated during the 19th century. They survived longer in this area, however, than in other parts of

2300-487: The interstate highway in the state, He oversaw the last three executions in the state, all in 1959. Because West Virginia's constitution prohibited governors from serving consecutive terms at that time, Underwood ran for the United States Senate in 1960, but was defeated by incumbent Democrat Jennings Randolph . He was nominated again for governor in 1964 but was defeated by Hulett C. Smith , and then lost

2392-661: The "Salt Village" below the Kanawha Falls , but, that simply the "Mehetan" were associated with these. He explained, below the "Salt Villages", a mass of hostile Indians had, implied, arrived and some believe these to be "Shanwans" of Vielles Expedition of 1692~94, ancient Shawnee. In 1669, John Lederer of Maryland for the Virginia Colony and the Tennessee Cherokee had visited the mouth of the Kanawha and reported no hostilities on

2484-608: The 1950s to 1992, the United States government maintained a top secret continuity program known as Project Greek Island at The Greenbrier hotel in the Alleghenies of southern West Virginia. In August 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referenced the Alleghenies—among several in an evocative list of mountains—in his famous " I Have a Dream " speech, when he said "Let freedom ring from

2576-464: The 2005 assessment indicated some issues with telephone volume control, the height of door knobs, and the excessive slope of certain ramps. Allegheny Mountains The Alleghenies comprise the rugged western-central portion of the Appalachians . They rise to approximately 4,862 feet (1,482 m) in northeastern West Virginia. In the east, they are dominated by a high, steep escarpment known as

2668-540: The A.D. 1300 Luray phase ( Algonquian ) peoples' "invasion". It is thought that these ancient Alleghenians were pushed from the classic Huffman Phase of the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia , which was eastern Siouan territory. In 1669, John Lederer and members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains and the first to see

2760-629: The Alleghenies for the first time. In the following decades, pioneer settlers arrived in the Alleghenies, especially during Colonial Virginia's Robert Dinwiddie era (1751–58). These included squatters by the Quit-rent Law. Some had preceded the official surveyors using a "hack on the tree and field of corn" marking land ownership approved by the Virginia Colonial Governor who had to be replaced with Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore . Trans-Allegheny travel had been facilitated when

2852-543: The Alleghenies were formed during the Appalachian orogeny . Because of intense freeze-thaw cycles in the higher Alleghenies, there is little native bedrock exposed in most areas. The ground surface usually rests on a massive jumble of sandstone rocks, with air space between them, that are gradually moving down-slope. The crest of the Allegheny Front is an exception, where high bluffs are often exposed. Mineral springs in

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2944-524: The Alleghenies. The first permanent European settlers west of the Alleghenies have traditionally been considered to have been two New Englanders: Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, who arrived in the Greenbrier Valley in 1749. They built a cabin together at what would become Marlinton, West Virginia , but after disputing over religion, Sewell moved into a nearby hollowed-out sycamore tree. In 1751, surveyor John Lewis (father of Andrew Lewis ) discovered

3036-1032: The Atlantic seaboard. The highest ridges of the Alleghenies are just west of the Front, which has an east/west elevational change of up to 3,000 feet (910 m). Absolute elevations of the Allegheny Highlands reach nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 m), with the highest elevations in the southern part of the range. The highest point in the Allegheny Mountains is Spruce Knob (4,863 ft; 1,482 m), on Spruce Mountain in West Virginia . Other notable Allegheny highpoints include Thorny Flat on Cheat Mountain (4,848 ft; 1,478 m), Bald Knob on Back Allegheny Mountain (4,842 ft; 1,476 m), and Mount Porte Crayon (4,770 ft; 1,450 m), all in West Virginia; Dans Mountain (2,898 ft; 883 m) in Maryland, Backbone Mountain (3,360 ft; 1,020 m),

3128-604: The B&;O Railroad. The Battle of Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861) gave the Federals control of the turnpike, of Tygart's Valley, and of all of the territory of western Virginia to the north and west, including the railroad. (Union General George McClellan 's victory in this theater would ultimately bring him promotion to commander the Army of the Potomac .) The Federals fortified at Cheat Summit , and

3220-569: The B&O traversed the Alleghenies, changing the economy and society of the Mountains forever. The B&O had reached Martinsburg, (West) Virginia by May 1842, Hancock, (West) Virginia , by June, Cumberland, Maryland, on November 5, 1842, Piedmont, (West) Virginia on July 21, 1851, and Fairmont, (West) Virginia on June 22, 1852. (It finally reached its Ohio River terminus at Wheeling, (West) Virginia on January 1, 1853.) The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — also begun in 1828, but at Georgetown —

3312-573: The Blackwater Country and the Falls entered the literature for the first time. Strother also published a more lengthy description of his June 1852 visit in an article called "The Mountains". The Dobbin House was built near the Falls in 1858 and provided a popular lodge for visitors to the Falls during the 1860s and '70s. A published account of a May 1879 visit to the Falls by recreationalists further popularized

3404-471: The Canyon. There are several other smaller falls within the park. These chutes, cascades, and overhanging ledges on Falls Run (multi-ledge drop, 30 feet), Shay Run ( Elakala Falls ; 40 feet), and Pendleton Run (Pendleton Falls; 20 feet (6.1 m) plus cascades above and below) are accessible by trail. The name of the first white explorer to observe Blackwater Falls is not known. There was an oral tradition that it

3496-462: The Confederates established strongholds at Camp Bartow and Camp Allegheny . Here they faced each other warily through the fall of 1861 and the following winter. General Robert E. Lee 's attempt to attack Cheat Summit Fort (September 12–15, 1861) and Federal attempts to attack Bartow and Allegheny, all failed to change the strategic stalemate. Finally, the harsh, high elevation winter achieved what

3588-399: The Falls parking lot to a wooden walkway and overlook, while a much steeper trail extends beyond the basin below the Falls. On the opposite (east) side of the river, a longer trail ("Gentle Trail") also accesses the Falls from a higher vantage point. A nature trail (wheelchair-accessible) near the park lodge leads to the more distant Lindy Point overlook, affording an excellent view south into

3680-803: The High Alleghenies attracted Native Americans and 18th century white settlers and provided a modest incentive to the local economy. The spas developing around these geological features include celebrated resorts that continue to cater to an exclusive clientele, such as The Greenbrier ( White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia ; hotel built 1858) and The Homestead ( Hot Springs, Virginia ; original lodge built 1766). The High Alleghenies are noted for their forests of red spruce , balsam fir , and mountain ash , trees typically found much farther north. Hardwood forests also include yellow birch , sugar and red maple , eastern hemlock , and black cherry . American beech , pine and hickory can also be found. The forests of

3772-628: The Jesuit Relations showing that Alligeh was one of several accepted renderings of the name of the Erie people among the early 17th century missionaries among the Native peoples throughout the eastern Great Lakes region, along with Rique, Yenresh and Erichronon. The suffix -ni means "of the," in Lenape, despite the irony that geh is also Iroquoian for "of the." So, most likely, Alligehni, or Oligini, would probably be

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3864-562: The Lenape name for the original homeland of the Erie people. The word "Allegheny" was once commonly used to refer to the whole of what are now called the Appalachian Mountains . John Norton used it (spelled variously) around 1810 to refer to the mountains in Tennessee and Georgia . Around the same time, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either "Appalachia" or "Alleghania". In 1861, Arnold Henry Guyot published

3956-775: The Mississippi River. Following Cedar Creek through the Natural Bridge , they floated in buffalo-skin boats down the New , Coal , Kanawha , and Ohio Rivers to the Mississippi. Although captured by the French before he reached Natchez , Howard was eventually released and (in 1745) was interviewed by Fairfax. Howard's description of the South Branch Potomac River resulted in the definite decision by Fairfax to secure his lands in

4048-440: The Monongahela were of Algonquin origin.... Other scholars have suggested that Iroquoian speakers were interacting with Late Monongahela people, and additional evidence is presented to confirm this. I conclude that the archaeologically conceived term, Monongahela, likely encompasses speakers of several languages, including Siouan." According to Dr Maslowski of West Virginia in 2009: "The New River Drainage and upper Potomac represents

4140-419: The Montaine sites in the Tygart Valley . Small groups of Montaine people appear to have lingered much beyond their classically defined period in parts of the most mountainous valleys. The watershed of the Monongahela River is within the northwestern Alleghenies, and it is from it that the Monongahela culture takes its name. The Godwin-Portman site (36AL39) located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania , had

4232-423: The National Association of State Councils on Vocational Education. Underwood was elected again to the office of Governor of West Virginia in 1996 under the banner "Better Government, not Bigger Government", carrying 38 of the state's 55 counties and defeating astronaut Jon McBride and future congressman David McKinley . During his governorship, he enabled the Governor's Commission of Fair Taxation , which

4324-410: The Ouasioto Mountains and the earliest term Canaraguy (Kanawhans otherwise Canawest ) on the 1671 French map occupied the southerly Alleghenies. They were associated with the Allegheny "Cherokee" and Eastern Siouan as trade-movers and canoe transporters. The Calicuas, an ancient most northern Cherokee, migrated or was pushed from the Central Ohio Valley onto the north eastern slopes of the Alleghenies of

4416-420: The Railroad had already arrived eight years before. Debt-ridden, the Canal company dropped its plan to continue construction of the next 180 miles (290 km) of the Canal into the Ohio Valley. The company had long realized—especially with the difficult experience of digging the Paw Paw Tunnel —that the original plan of construction over the mountains and all the way down the Youghiogheny River to Pittsburgh

4508-407: The Republican primary for governor to Arch A. Moore Jr. in 1968. He was nominated again for governor in 1976, losing to Democrat Jay Rockefeller by 250,000 votes, which would become his largest defeat. During the 1960s, he was named temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention and was once considered for the office of Vice President under Richard Nixon . Two weeks after losing

4600-444: The Senate race in 1960, Underwood went to work for the Island Creek Coal Company and Monsanto Chemical Company as well as forming his own land development company. He was associated as well with the Software Valley Corporation in Morgantown, West Virginia . He continued his academic career by serving as President of Bethany College and instructor of political science at Marshall University . He also served as president of

4692-491: The Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. The proto-historic Alleghenies can be exampled by the earliest journals of the colonists. According to Batts and Fallows' September, 1671 Expedition, they found Mehetan Indians of Mountain "Cherokee-Iroquois" mix on the New River tributaries. This journal does not identify the "Salt Village", but, that the "Mehetan" were associated with these and today thought to be " Monetons ", Siouans. However, this journal does not identify

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4784-481: The ancient Messawomeake, Iroquois tradesmen to 1630s Kent Island, by 1710 maps. Sometime before 1712, the Canawest ("Kanawhans"-"Canallaway"-"Canaragay") had moved to the upper Potomac and made a Treaty with the newly established trading post of Fort Conolloway which would become a part of western Maryland during the 1740s. Prior to European exploration and settlement, trails through the Alleghenies had been transited for many generations by American Indian tribes such as

4876-424: The celebrated Falls itself. A state park was formally established in 1937. Additional donations of land in 1953 and 1955 by the WVPTC, 489 acres (2.0 km), and by the U.S. Forest Service , 744 acres (3.0 km), in 1957, brought the total to some 1,679 acres (6.79 km). The Park was day-use only until the mid-1950s. The years 1955 and '56, however, saw several improvements to buildings and grounds including

4968-614: The college, he was elected student body president and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity; he graduated in 1943. After college, he taught high school biology in St. Marys, Pleasants County, West Virginia from 1943 to 1946. While at Salem College, he met his future wife, Hovah Hall through her two sisters who were his classmates. They were wed on July 25, 1948 at Knotts Methodist Church in Grantsville. From 1946 to 1950, Underwood taught at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio . He then served as Vice President of Salem College from 1950 to 1956. Nine years later he received

5060-419: The colonial Alleghenian location of only a few other early colonial trading locations. A general knowledge of these few outposts are more of traditional telling of some local people. However, an example is the "Van Metre" trading house mentioned in an earlier edition of the "Wonderful West Virginia Magazine" being on the South Branches of the upper reaches of the Potomac. Another very early trading house appears on

5152-478: The construction of 25 cabins, a dammed fishing/skating lake, and a 55-room lodge dubbed "The Lodge in the Sky" (since the park is the highest in the state) which was opened and dedicated in 1957. Annual visitors numbered 240,000 (over 18,000 of them overnighters) by 1960. In May 2000, West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood purchased 25 acres (100,000 m) of Blackwater Canyon for $ 50,000 an acre and added it to Blackwater Falls State Park. Allegheny Wood Products ,

5244-507: The eastern United States. Naturalist John James Audubon reported that by 1851 a few eastern elk ( Cervus canadensis canadiensis ) could still be found in the Alleghany Mountains but that by then they were virtually gone from the remainder of their range. Mammals in the Allegheny region today include whitetail deer , chipmunk , raccoon , skunk , groundhog , opossum , weasel , field mouse , flying squirrel , cottontail rabbit , gray foxes , red foxes , gray squirrels , red squirrels and

5336-431: The election, making him one of the youngest U.S. governors to have ever been elected. Following the lead of Governor William C. Marland , the Democrat who preceded him in office, Underwood continued the desegregation of West Virginia schools without violent confrontation at all levels and was a supporter of civil rights legislation. The previous governors since 1932 had all been Democrats . His first act as governor

5428-521: The entire region are now almost all second- or third-growth forests , the original trees having been removed in the late 19th and (in West Virginia) early 20th centuries. The wild onion known as the ramp ( Allium tricoccum ) is also present in the deeper forests. Certain isolated areas in the High Alleghenies are well known for their open expanses of sphagnum bogs and heath shrubs (e.g., Dolly Sods , Cranberry Glades ). Many plant communities are indeed similar to those of sea-level eastern Canada. But

5520-413: The first systematic geologic study of the whole mountain range. His map labeled the range as the "Alleghanies", but his book was titled On the Appalachian Mountain System . As late as 1867, John Muir —in his book A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf —used the word "Alleghanies" in referring to the southern Appalachians. There was no general agreement about the "Appalachians" versus the "Alleghanies" until

5612-478: The head of Blackwater Canyon. The major ledge is composed of Connoquenessing sandstone of the Middle Pottsville Formation . The Falls are usually cited as the highest above-ground falls (there are higher cave falls) in the state. A rocky prominence near the center of the Falls divides its waters into a distinctive formation, rendering its images instantly recognizable. In winter, the Falls often ice over completely. A broad trail descends about 320 feet (98 m) from

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5704-513: The heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!" The Flight 93 National Memorial is located at the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 —which was hijacked in the September 11 attacks —in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania , about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Shanksville . The memorial honors the passengers and crew of Flight 93, who stopped Al-Qaeda terrorists from reaching their intended target. Cecil Underwood Cecil Harland Underwood (November 5, 1922 – November 24, 2008)

5796-404: The highest point in Maryland; Mount Davis (3,213 ft; 979 m), the highest point in Pennsylvania, and the second highest, Blue Knob (3,146 ft; 959 m). There are very few sizable cities in the Alleghenies. The four largest are (in descending order of population): Altoona , State College , Johnstown (all in Pennsylvania) and Cumberland (in Maryland). In the 1970s and '80s,

5888-435: The ill-fated Braddock expedition four years later. In addition to the war, hunting and trading with Indians were primary motivations for white movement across the mountains. Permanent white settlement of the northern Alleghenies was facilitated by the explorations and stories of such noted Marylanders as the Indian fighter and trader Thomas Cresap (1702–90) and the backwoodsman and hunter Meshach Browning (1781–1859). In

5980-430: The larger Appalachian Plateau province. It may be generally defined to the south by the Allegheny Front , and to the east by the Susquehanna River valley. To the west, the Alleghenies grade down into the dissected Allegheny Plateau. The westernmost ridges are considered to be the Laurel Highlands and Chestnut Ridge in Pennsylvania , and Laurel Mountain and Rich Mountain in West Virginia . Big Stone Ridge marks

6072-448: The late 18th century, a massive migration to the Monongahela River basin took place over three main routes: along the old Braddock Road via Winchester, Virginia ; through the Shenandoah Valley to the head of the Cheat River and from there to the Monongahela; and along the Lincoln Highway to Ligonier, Pennsylvania , and thence along Jacob's Creek to the Monongahela. These immigrants were predominantly Scotch-Irish , German , and, to

6164-412: The late 19th century. From northeast to southwest, the Allegheny Mountains run about 300 miles (480 km). From west to east, at their widest, they are about 100 miles (160 km). When combining the Allegheny Province with the Kanawa Province, they run 400 miles (640 km). The USGS physiographic classification of all land in the United States lists the Allegheny Mountains as a section within

6256-406: The lower streams of the Alleghenies. The Mohetan representative through a Siouan translator explained to Mr Batts and Mr Fallon, Colonel Abraham Woods explorers 1671–2, that he (Moheton Native American ) could not say much about the people below the "Salt Village" because they (Mountain Cherokee) were not associated with them. The Mohetan was armed by this time of 1671 for the Mohetan Representative

6348-573: The mountains during the warmer seasons. Occasionally, osprey and eagles can be found nesting along the streams. The hawks and owls are the most common birds of prey . The water habitats of the Alleghenies hold 24 families of fish. Amphibian species number about 21, among them hellbenders , lungless salamanders , and various toads and frogs . The Alleghenies provide habitat for about 54 species of common invertebrate . These include Gastropoda , slugs , leech , earthworms and grub worm . Cave crayfish ( Cambarus nerterius ) live alongside

6440-422: The pair. Sewell eventually settled on the eastern side of Sewell Mountain, near present-day Rainelle, West Virginia . They may well have been the first to settle what was then called the "western waters"— i.e. , in the regions where streams flowed westward to the Gulf of Mexico rather than eastward to the Atlantic. Among the first whites to penetrate into the Allegheny Mountains were surveyors attempting to settle

6532-433: The primary, and enjoyed a decisive victory against Democratic U.S. Representative Robert Mollohan in the general election by 63,000 votes. Only a week prior to the election, it was discovered that Mollohan had received $ 20,000 and two cars from a coal operator on a strip mine at a male reformatory in Pruntytown while Mollohan was superintendent of the institution. Underwood had turned 34 years old only one day before

6624-492: The range of the Huffman Phase (Page) hunting and gathering area or when it is found in small amounts on village sites, trade ware or Page women being assimilated into another village (tribe)." Finally, according to Prof Potter of Virginia, they [the people represented by the Huffman Phase of Page pottery] had occupied the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies on the upper Potomac to the northern, lower Shenandoah Valley region before

6716-405: The region, but most of the revenues flowed out of the mountains to the cities of the eastern seaboard where the captains of industry were headquartered. This inequity created a bitter legacy that would last for generations and form the foundation of the mountaineers' poverty and the area's immense environmental degradation . The most momentous disaster to afflict the people of the Alleghenies

6808-652: The region. An expedition under Peter Jefferson and Thomas Lewis in the following year emplaced the " Fairfax Stone " at the source of the North Branch and established a line of demarcation (the " Fairfax Line ") extending from the stone south-east to the headwaters of the Rappahannock River . Lewis' journal of that expedition provides a valuable view of the Allegheny country before its settlement. Jefferson and Joshua Fry 's "Fry-Jefferson Map" of 1751 accurately depicted

6900-519: The reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh . (This body of water had been built as part of the Main Line of Public Works , then abandoned.) With a flow rate that temporarily equalled that of the Mississippi River , the flood killed 2,209 people and caused US$ 17 million of damage (about $ 425 million in 2012 dollars). The American Red Cross , led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers, undertook

6992-422: The site. At least four deaths have occurred at the falls. In 1933, a local was accidentally washed over the Falls during a flood. Rudolph Kendzior of Monongah, West Virginia , died cliff diving in 1937. In 1973, a couple was swept over the falls when a woman lost her footing on a slippery rock and her husband lost his balance while trying to catch her. Beginning in the early 1930s, various leases and donations to

7084-602: The southern extent of the Alleghenies and is an outlier of Flat Top Mountain , with the Tug Fork river running along its western flank. The land to the south and to the west of the Alleghenies is the Valley and Ridge physiographic province. The eastern edge of the Alleghenies is marked by the Allegheny Front , which is also sometimes considered the eastern terminus of the Allegheny Plateau . This great escarpment roughly follows

7176-551: The state from the West Virginia Power and Transmission Company (WVPTC), later called Allegheny Power Systems , which then owned much of Blackwater Canyon, protected and facilitated tourism at the Falls. The first of these (1934) resulted in the establishment and maintenance, by the West Virginia State Forest and Park Commission , of a 446 acres (1.80 km) scenic overlook at the head of the Canyon which included

7268-716: The television game show To Tell the Truth . He was a Methodist . Underwood was born in 1922 in Josephs Mills, West Virginia , the son of Della N. (née Forrester) and Silas Henry Underwood. He labored on farms during the Great Depression . He graduated from Tyler County High School in 1939. After graduation, he became an Army reservist during World War II before enrolling in Salem College in Harrison County . At

7360-475: The timber company that owns about half of the Blackwater Canyon today, donated an additional 100 acres (0.40 km). In January 2002, Governor Bob Wise bought an additional 500 acres (2.0 km) along the river upstream of the falls from Allegheny Power and added them to the park. Accessibility for the disabled was assessed by West Virginia University . While the park lodge is generally accessible,

7452-455: The troops had failed to accomplish, and in the spring of 1862 both armies moved on down the pike to the Battle of McDowell (May 8, 1862), and then on to fight what became General Stonewall Jackson 's Shenandoah Valley Campaign (spring 1862). Two years later, much of this contested area (along with much else) became part of the new state of West Virginia . The very rugged terrain of the Alleghenies

7544-569: The western valleys of the central Allegheny range. The Montaine sites extend from the tributaries of the upper Potomac River region south to the New River tributaries. These also were influenced by the earlier Armstrong culture of the more southwestern portions northern sub-range of the Ouasioto (Cumberland) Mountains and by the more easterly Virginia Woodland people. The Late Woodland Montaine were less influenced by Hopewellian trade from Ohio, although similarly polished stone tools have been found among

7636-618: Was "wildly unrealistic". Public works financed at the state level were not lacking during this period. The Main Line of Public Works was a transportation network project built between 1826 and 1834 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania . It created a railroad and canal system across southern Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh , intended to transport freight (notably including anthracite coal ) and people with greater reliability, speed and capacity. The Main Line of Public Works included

7728-651: Was a thorough review of the state's tax structure. The Commission made numerous recommendations for improvement. He streamlined administrative costs from education and other government sectors. In October 1999, Underwood was selected by the governors of the Appalachian states to serve as West Virginia's co-chairman for the Appalachian Regional Commission for 2000. Underwood was the only sitting Republican governor defeated for re-election in 2000 , narrowly losing to Democrat Bob Wise . His wife, Hovah , died on September 24, 2004, from complications of

7820-502: Was also a public work of enormous economic and social significance for the Alleghenies. It approached Hancock, Maryland , by 1839. From the beginning, the B&O Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal operated in bitter legal and commercial competition with one another as they vied for rights to the narrow strips of land along the Potomac. When the Canal finally reached Cumberland in 1850,

7912-408: Was an American Republican Party politician from West Virginia , known for the length of his career. He was the 25th and 32nd Governor of West Virginia from 1957 to 1961, and from 1997 to 2001. He ran for re-election in 2000 but was defeated by Democrat Bob Wise . Underwood was both the youngest and the oldest person ever to serve as Governor of West Virginia . He was also the first guest on

8004-524: Was constructed to provide a direct route for the settlements of the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River by way of the Tygart Valley and Little Kanawha Rivers. Planned and approved in 1826 and completed in 1848, the Staunton and Parkersburg was maintained by fees (tolls) collected at toll houses placed at regular intervals. Construction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began at Baltimore in 1828;

8096-555: Was given several pouches of ammunition for his and the other's weapons as a token of friendship. Somebody had already been trading within the central Alleghenies before the Virginians historical record begins in the Allegheny Mountains. Some earlier scholars found evidence these Proto-historics were either Cistercians of Spanish Ajacan Occuquan outpost on the Potomac River or Jesuits and their Kahnawake Praying Indians ( Mohawk ) on

8188-416: Was not at all amenable to a large-scale maneuver war and so the actions that the area witnessed for the remainder of the conflict were generally guerrilla in nature. With the further spread of the railroad networks in the 1890s and early 1900s, many new towns developed and thrived in the Alleghenies. The lumbering and coal industries that boomed in the wake of the railroads brought a measure of prosperity to

8280-584: Was the Johnstown Flood —locally known as the "Great Flood of 1889"—which occurred on May 31 of that year after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania . The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, unleashing 20 million tons of water (18 million cubic meters) from

8372-542: Was the early hunter/explorer of the Potomac and Youghiogheny River watersheds Meshach Browning (1781–1859), but while this is plausible there is no documentary evidence for it. Travel writer Philip Pendleton Kennedy described the Blackwater Canyon for a popular readership in 1853 but somehow managed to miss the Falls. The same year however, his companion and cousin, the illustrator David Hunter Strother ("Porte Crayon"), published "The Virginia Canaan" about his adventures in

8464-524: Was to go on the new medium of television and inform every state employee that they were fired. He stated that this was the only way to destroy the corrupt "machine" system. He later advocated an organized civil service and retirement pension system, and provided temporary employment relief for low-income families. Underwood was instrumental in the creation of the West Virginia Mental Health Department, and oversaw creation of

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