Warren Elmer "Tweard" Blackhurst (1904–1970) was an author and a lifelong resident of the Cass community[1] who centered on the culture of eastern West Virginia where the higher elevations supported northern pine forests.

"Riders of the Flood" which is arguably the most well-known of Blackhurst's books, for it centers on the world of the late 19th to early 20th-century logging industry in eastern West Virginia through the Greenbrier River and its tributaries.

His father, an immigrant from Tunstall, England, came to America in 1886 with his parents Jabez (1843–1914) and Sarah (1842–1924), and Warren's mother was an American-born native of Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

Whether they are the blustering bully about to get drunk and rip a town apart just because it is payday, or a young man trying to make something of himself, the characters sounded like actual people who one might already know.

He married Stella Mae Yates (1917-2000) on June 25, 1934, and they moved into a house his elder brother Henry O'Dell Blackhurst (1895-1989) and father had built together a few years prior.

The main protagonist, Duncan “Dunk” Mall is quickly moved by his unexpected collapse in fortunes to take the next train out of Washington, D.C.

He soon becomes one of the crew and learns their ways, encountering colorful characters such as Windy Hammer, a man as skilled in tall tales as he is in his craft, Tad Stevens and Jim Noonan.

[9] Riders on the Flood is performed solely in the Island Park Amphitheatre of Ronceverte, West Virginia—the same town and locale that saw the true lumbering industry during the latter half of the 19th century.

Blackhurst's books are spiced with historical photographs that emphasize the now-alien world where entire rivers were choked with giant logs and one's livelihood depended on spring floods.

[10] The town of Ronceverte hosts the theater version of "Riders of the Flood" every September just downstream from the original site of the St. Lawrence Broom and Lumber Mill[11] in Blackhurst's books.