WV Civil War Geotrail

I’m sure it’s clear that geocaching is one of my favorite hobbies. One of the things I love most about geocaching is the opportunity to explore both new areas and see places I feel are familiar in an entirely new light. Currently, the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts is taking full advantage of this aspect of geocaching. Earlier this year they launched the West Virginia Civil War Geotrail, a series of 75 geocaches located all around West Virginia at sites related to West Virginia’s involvement in the Civil War.

Many of the cache locations have been used in prior geocaching programs operated by the WV Department of Education and the Arts, but it’s still a really nice tour of the state for those who are less familiar with the Mountain State. Indeed, it was seeking for one of these caches that I revisited Blue Sulphur Springs. Despite being an avid traveler of the Mountain State, it has also taken me to a few sites I had not yet seen, like the monument to Confederate Soldiers in Union and to Organ Cave.

A Confederate Soldier in the town of Union

My biggest complaint is that some of the sites seem very tenuously related to the Civil War. For example, I’m still not really sure what direct role the Greenbrier had other than that the wealthy of that era liked to hang out there and take the waters. On the contrary, some of the sites had interesting Civil War history that I had not realized, even if slight, such as that discovered on the Monongahela River near Morgantown. But given my most common complaint about geotrails, often put together or managed by individuals who are not geocachers themselves, is poor coordinates that take you nowhere near the location of the cache followed by poor container and location choices, my issues here are slight.

If you’re interested in trying geocaching out for the first time or are interested in discovering (or re-discovering) a really special state, this is a great series. Coordinates are accurate, containers are typically larger and well-selected, and the historical component just adds something special.