Logging South Cheat The History of the Snowshoe Lands by Dr. George H. Deike III

$35.00

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Soft Cover

40 pages

The Snowshoe Resort consists of some 1S,000 acres of the highest ridges in the West Virginia mountains. The original Snowshoe Area includes the basin and surrounding ridges that comprise the head of Shavers Fork of Cheat River. Also included is the steep west slope of the ridge, dropping to Hawthorn Valley, on Big Spring Fork of Elk River. The Silver Creek Area, acquired in 1992, encompasses the drainage basin of Black Run, the first major tributary of Shavers Fork.

Since 1973, the company has developed a variety of ski slopes with one double, one quadruple, and nine triple chairlifts. Accommodations include lodges, condominiums, town houses, and private homes. Snowshoe is one of the largest resort complexes in the East and is developing year-round recreation.

The history of this tract of land prior to the coming of Snowshoe is the story of one industry: lumber. For seven decades, the land was home to wild and wooly lumberjacks, called "wood hicks" in these parts. They lived and worked on the mountain, and laced it with one of the most rough and tumble transportation systems, the logging railroad. The trains brought to the remote forest land a strange variety of steam powered machinery, and the wail of the steam whistle broke the silence here long before the chain saw or the snowmobile.

Today, remnants of the lumbering era can still be seen on Cheat Mountain. The odd-sounding names of ski slopes and other facilities are taken from the days of logging, and the roads and other traces of man in evidence are left from an adventurous, hardworking past.

The information presented here has been compiled largely by talking to men who worked in the forests of Cheat Mountain. Varied old maps and more recent air photographs have been consulted. A list of written works about the area appears at the end of this hook. The writer has tried to resolve conflicting stories, locations, and dates, surely without complete success. Time has taken many of those who really knew the mountain, and memory slowly fades for all of us. Only those who actually lived it really knew the story well. Some of the tales retold here are surely more or less than the exact truth, but they reveal the life and attitudes of the times.

The maps in this book illustrate the logging activities at several different time periods. A few of the camp numbers on the maps are the authors best interpretation of available information and interviews, and some uncertainty exists. Not all the camps were located in the field. Present day roads and features of the resort are shown for reference. Of course, most of these did not exist at the time of the historic dates in the map titles. For clarity some details are omitted, such as short side tracks of the railroad. There were about three times as many skid roads radiating from each skidder set as are actually shown on the maps. The maps may serve as guides for cross-country skiers or summer hikers. The writer would like to hear about any discoveries.

All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.

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