[4][5] Spruce Knob, located in Pendleton County, is the highest point in the state and in the Alleghenies, its elevation being 4,863 feet.

Parts of the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests are also located in Pendleton County.

By the 1740s, the three main valleys of what became Pendleton County had been visited and named by white hunters and prospectors.

One of the hunters, a single man named Abraham Burner, built himself a log cabin about a half mile downstream of the future site of Brandywine in 1745.

A local historian recorded that: The site ... [was] on the left bank of the river, and near the beginning of a long, eastward bend.

From almost at his very door his huntsman's eye was at times gladdened by seeing perhaps fifty deer either drinking from the steam or plunging in their heads up to their ears in search of moss.

[6] By 1747, immigrants were impinging on the (future) borders of Pendleton from two directions: the larger community was mostly Germans moving up the valley of the South Branch Potomac; the lesser consisted mainly of Scotch-Irish moving northwest from Staunton up into the headwaters of the James River.

The northern section of the county, including the enclave in the Smoke Hole community was staunchly Unionist.

In June 1863, the county was included by the federal government in the new state of West Virginia against the wishes of many of the inhabitants.

That fall, Union General W.W. Averell swept up the South Branch valley, and destroyed the Confederate saltpetre works above Franklin.

[7] In the months following the state's establishment, West Virginia's counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government.

[8] Pendleton County was divided into six districts: Bethel, Circleville, Franklin, Mill Run, Sugar Grove, and Union.

According to the National Weather Service, thirty-eight of the deaths occurred in Pendleton and Grant Counties, West Virginia.

The North Fork Valley, on the western side of the county, has a number of businesses that cater to tourists who come for the area's outdoor recreation opportunities.

Sugar Grove Station, an electronic listening post for the National Security Agency, is located near the southeast corner of the Pendleton County.