Blackwater Canyon

For many years, it has been the object of controversy as environmental activists have contended with industrial (power, timber, development) interests over its ultimate status.

Tributary streams – notably Pendleton Creek and Shay's Run – have formed hanging valleys high above the canyon floor.

Black bear inhabit the canyon, along with white-tail deer, squirrel, numerous bird species, and timber rattlesnake dens.

[2] Two years later, illustrator David Hunter Strother (“Porte Crayon”) wrote, and Harper's Monthly published, “The Virginia Canaan” about his adventures in the Blackwater Canyon and surrounding areas.

[3] For his readers, Strother depicted mountainous vistas of immense spruce and hardwood stands, thick laurels and rhododendrons and an untamed canyon carved by a wild, raging river.

This astonishing feat, accomplished over the course of a year, required excavating road cuts sometimes hundreds of feet high into Backbone Mountain.

Several wrecks and derailments occurred in the vicinity of the Big Run culvert, owing to the sharpness of the curve that trains had to negotiate at this point.

Along the line came towns, such as Douglas, Limerock and Coketon, as the coal mines, coke ovens, and timber industry brought an influx of workers.

Yet, protected by the adjacent newly established public lands, the Canyon began to recover, as healthy second growth forests regenerated.

When activists expressed concern for the ecological, historical, and recreational losses to be incurred, AWP began to work with government agencies on preserving the natural integrity of the area.

In addition AWP requested that the Forest Service grant them an easement to utilize the former railroad grade as a logging haul road.