Traveling E ...

  Cook's Mill, also known as The Old Mill and Greenville Roller Mill, Greenville, West Virginia "1797, Valentine Cook which includes a "gristmill" and we know that he had carved out a 650 acre tract here by the time of a 1774 survey. We can surmise that the mill was built soon after because much of the tillable farmland along Indian Creek had already been claimed and was presumably being cleared and farmed to some degree. So, there would have been a real need to grind corn and wheat in an area so remote from other facilities. The mill would have been small and powered by a waterwheel connected to at least one "run of millstones" by wooden shafts and gears. but a mill on the frontier would have been more basic. Valentine Cook also had a gunpowder mill by 1797. using saltpeter from local caves, but whether this was on this site is unknown.  A second mill must have been built in 1858, to judge by a contract signed late in 1857, by Jacob A. Cook, Riley B. Cook

  Reed's Mill, Secondcreek, West Virginia 304 - 772- 5665 est. 1791 " main building was built in 1791, mortise and tenon frame structure held together with wooden pins and sits atop a raised cut stone basement. 3 story section with basement added in 1949. Also includes the mill dam, wing-dam, mill race lined with rock and ending in the mill pond and concrete mill race that carries water to the turbine (1872) which operates the grinding wheels in the mill. It is an operating mill. "   Sadly we were not there when it was open ...wish you could support folks who have mills still going but we have found they are often not open when we are visiting ...you still enjoy the views. Wishing them all the best and that they will continue to be business into the way on future. This beauty was right down the road from the mill and the hubs had to get a photo ... such character. How are you today? Doing well I sure do hope so. Thank you so kindly for stopping in ... Take Care and see yo

  Hinton, West Virginia "1972, on the 100th anniversary of the opening of the tunnel and the birth of the John Henry legend. The opening ceremony included the grand entrance of the John Henry statue through the Great Bend Tunnel on a special train." "primary contractor Capt. William R. Johnson who was educated as a civil engineer was served in that capacity in a Confederate regiment during the Civil War. He employed 800 - 1,000 workers were either African-American newly freed from enslavement, Irish immigrants, and other nationalities. Once completed, the tunnel was 6,450 feet in length with a slight curve at the east end due to an engineering error."    I recall singing this song as a kid ... do you? What fun to see this history and learn a thing or 2. Do you know the Johnny Cash song ... please look up "The Legend of John Henry's Hammer (Live In Las Vegas, 1979)" ... I was not familiar with it ...but after seeing this bit here on the info boards I h

The Tipple  "where coal was sorted, stored, loaded into rail cars, or transferred to the site's coke ovens. tipple comes from the practice in some mines of tipping ore cars to unload them. The Fordson Coal Company, who leased the Nuttallburg Mine in the 1920's, built this tipple in 1923-24. This is the 3rd tipple on the site. Here in New River Gorge the mining process was complicated by the fact that the coal seam was half-way up the gorge slope. Mining here meant moving coal from the headhouse at the mine entrance down the conveyor to the tipple at the gorge bottom. The tipple was the operation's centerpiece." "large structure that climbs the slope in front of you was a conveyor that carried coal from the mine entrance high up the gorge wall to the tipple behind you. It was an innovation and expensive device for moving coal downhill. 1,385 feet long, it was one of the longest such conveyors ever built. Completed in 1926 during the period when Henry Ford upgr

  Falling Springs Falls, Covington, VA on a sign at this location (just park your vehicle and walk a wee bit to enjoy this view, we were right around sunset and that would have been so gorgeous, you can not get any closer to the falls, but this is a gorgeous sight to see!!!) is this information and due to it's amazing history ... I love history. I really love Virginia history, so for that reason I am sharing it with you. Please enjoy...   "Welcome to Falling Spring Falls in the Heart of Alleghany Highlands  According to the book, "Historical Sketches of the Allegany Highlands" by Gay Arritt, 82 acres of land including the Falling Spring Falls was granted by King George III of Great Britain to Gabriel Jones in August 1771. In 1780, Thomas Jefferson, Governor of Virginia, granted the property to Major Thomas Massie. Jefferson visited the site once to survey the falls which he mentions in his manuscripts "Notes on the State of Virginia" written in 1781. "