There are 222 miles of U.S. 50 in West Virginia. The first 149 miles, from the Virginia border to Clarksburg, feature occasional 15 mile-per-hour switchback curves in the Appalachian Mountains.
From Clarksburg to the western border at Parkersburg, Route 50 is four-lane, divided highway through wooded mountains.
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Photos by the author.
Things to see as you drive through West Virginia on Route 50.
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Photos by the author.
Metal roofs are common in West Virginia. Actually, they’re common in a lot of places — they are said to comprise 10% of the “residential re-roofing market.”
Metal roofs can be made from a number of different materials, including copper, lead, tin, and “stone coated steel.” They are very durable and even disperse lightning strikes, but they may corrode, and they require lots of insulation because they heat up nicely.
And there’s a disadvantage not imagined when the buildings in the photos were built — they can interfere with cell phone reception.
The use of metal roofing extends beyond residences. Further west on Route 50, we’ll see examples of metal church steeples.
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Photos by the author.
Route 50 passes through the middle of Romney, a town of approximately 1,800 people in the eastern part of West Virginia. It is the oldest town in West Virginia (1762).
Romney is the county seat of Hampshire County, and both Romney and Hampshire County have had a difficult history with wars. In 1928, local citizens erected a statue in front of the Hampshire County courthouse in Romney to honor those killed in “the World War.”
The inscription on the base of the statue is a quote from the second stanza of the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” by John McCrae. He wrote it after the death of a friend in a World War I battle, while he sat in the back of an ambulance at Ypres, Belgium. Here it is:
We are the dead.
Short days ago we lived,
Felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved.
There are 27 names.
During the time of the American Civil War, Hampshire County voted in favor of the Confederacy. That didn’t settle the matter for Romney, which was on the preferred route for armies traveling north and south through the surrounding mountainous territory. The result? According to a historical marker in Romney, Union and Confederate forces swapped control of the town 56 times.
Today, Romney is fighting a battle of a different kind:
This is a spotted lanternfly, a species native to China, India, and Vietnam, where it is kept in check by natural predators. It arrived in the U.S. in eastern Pennsylvania, where it was first recorded in 2014. Finding no inhibiting predators, within five years it spread to 14 counties in Pennsylvania, and onward into the nearby states. It can badly damage trees and agricultural products. Romney and West Virginia are on the alert.
In more positive agricultural news, Romney hosts the West Virginia Peach Festival in late summer.
Should you attend, and if you are very fortunate, DoodleBugs Desserts will be there. That means you will be able to sample their Peach Foldovers — delicious! And an excellent way to remember Romney as you continue on Route 50.
Unkind folks have said that Hampshire County is named after a pig, specifically the Hampshire Hog. The connection is tenuous, however, since the breed was not officially recognized as “Hampshires” until 1907. It’s more likely the county was simply named after County Hampshire, in England. Still it could be considered an honor to be named after hogs that have been described as “exhibiting good carcass quality when used as meat animals.”
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The Hampshire Hog photo is from Wikimedia Commons.
All other photos by the author.
Cathedral State Park in West Virginia contains the last remnants of a hemlock forest that once covered a wide area in the Appalachians. The average age of the mature trees here is 350 years.
The eastern hemlock is the climax species in this forest, meaning that it is crowding out other plants, except those that share its love of acid soil.
The hemlock tree is unrelated to the poison-hemlock plant, famous for its use in the execution of the philosopher Socrates.
There are picnic areas in the park, and easy hiking trails depart from the parking lot right next to Route 50. The trees are completely non-poisonous, so feel free to pull in for a restorative stroll in the woods.
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Photo by the author.
