By Jody Brumage

​The New River is one of West Virginia’s most widely-known natural landmarks, thanks to its status as a National River and its iconic bridge, the third longest single-span arch in the world. One of the oldest rivers in the world, the New River flows from North Carolina northwest into Virginia and West Virginia where is eventually becomes the Kanawha. When Congress passed legislation to bring the New River under federal protection in 1978, Senator Byrd wrote to President Carter, saying that a “national river designation would make West Virginia the home of a fine new national recreation area. Visitors from other states would be welcomed to share with us the excitement and pleasures of one of America’s oldest natural wonders – The New River Gorge.”

By Jody Brumage
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For over a century, West Virginia’s sport fishing industry has been supported by federal and state administered hatcheries. We detailed the history of some of these hatcheries in a blog from June 2015. In this week’s Post from the Archives, we are examining the effort to save one of the state’s largest hatcheries in the mid-1990s. 

Bowden Fish Hatchery is located along the Shavers Fork River in Randolph County, just a few miles outside of the city of Elkins. Established in 1958 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the hatchery was built in the early 1960s. Senator Byrd visited the site shortly after construction was completed. At the time, Bowden was the third federal hatchery built in the state after White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County and Leetown in Jefferson County. 

In our last Post from the Archives, we examined the short-lived West Virginian rail line operated by Amtrak in West Virginia’s north-central region from 1971 to 1973. This week, we will explore two additional rail lines championed by Senator Robert C. Byrd in the attempt to save passenger rail access in West Virginia.
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Just one year after Amtrak announced that it would suspend service on the West Virginian line, West Virginia’s congressional delegation turned their attention to preserving passenger rail service in the southern region of the state. The mountainous terrain of this region made it even more isolated than northern or eastern West Virginia, strengthening the case for maintaining access to passenger service via the railroad lines which had bisected this area for over a century. Two main lines historically served this region: the Chesapeake and Ohio to the north and the Norfolk and Western to the south.

In 1971, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known by its operational name, Amtrak, was created to use federal funding to aid declining passenger rail service throughout the United States. For West Virginia, one of the railroad lines incorporated into the new Amtrak system was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad which traversed the eastern panhandle and northern regions of the state. However, when Amtrak’s operation of this line began in the spring of 1971, service west of Martinsburg (located in the eastern panhandle of the state) was discontinued. 

The timber industry has played an important role in the economy and culture of West Virginia throughout much of its history. In the early-19th century, the hardwood forests of the Allegheny Mountains supported the cutting of timber for building construction and the production of charcoal. Later in the century, the production of paper from wood pulp became a major driver in the state's economy. However, by the 20th century, the market for the timber products exported from West Virginia was changing. At the same time, the environmental impacts of over a century of extensive cutting were also becoming evident.

By Ray Smock
 
I am just back from a visit to the C-SPAN Video Library, at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. This incredible vast video archive contains more than 231,000 hours of C-SPAN broadcasts going back more than thirty years, and it is growing daily, with digital audio and video recordings of each day’s broadcasts on the three C-SPAN channels and C-SPAN radio.  While I have been a user of this archive before, this was my first opportunity to see how it works. 

​May is Historic Preservation Month, a celebration of the role historic places play in our communities, economy, and culture. Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, providing a framework and incentives to preserve historic buildings and sites, such as the National Register of Historic Places and State Historic Preservation Offices. Preservation Month was created in 1973 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Research institutions, state and local historical societies, civic organizations, and other groups mark the month by promoting the benefits historic preservation projects can bring to their communities. 

​Senator Byrd believed in the benefits historic preservation could bring to West Virginia's economy and culture. Throughout his career, he worked to increase support for existing historic preservation sites and worked to gain recognition for new ones. These projects included the expansion of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in the state's eastern panhandle and the creation of the New River Gorge National River which led to the preservation of the town of Thurmond in Fayette County. One of Senator Byrd's later preservation projects was the creation of the Wheeling National Heritage Area in West Virginia's northern panhandle.

Lisa Welch, of Shepherdstown WV, has been elected to the board of directors of the Congressional Education Foundation, which operates the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education on the campus of Shepherd University. Walter J. Stewart, chairman of the board, said that Ms. Welch was invited to join the board because of her outstanding commitments to public service and the betterment of Shepherd University and her work to sustain and expand the superb social and cultural environment to which the Byrd Center contributes.
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