It was renamed in the early 1950s for Virginia "Jenny" Wiley, a pioneer woman who is remembered as a survivor of captivity by Native Americans.

[1] Taken captive October 1, 1789, by natives of the area, Cherokees, Shawnees, Wyandots, and Delawares, who murdered her brother and four children by tomahawk.

Her dramatic escape in 1790 is now a legendary tale of early American frontier life in the Levisa Fork river area and the Big Sandy Valley .

[3] The park lies in a "moist Appalachian" environment, dominated by maples, pawpaws and tulip poplars.

[citation needed] Multiday bicycle camping and touring clinics are offered in fall and winter.