Finding Old Roads: Elk River Drive
I often wonder what transportation looked like in the United States and Canada 50 to 100 years ago. It is important for me to understand and figure out where we’re coming from so I can make a meaningful contribution to where we are going. A very mild December enabled Chris and I to deviate from the usual drive between his parents in Huntington and our home, three hours northeast, which normally takes three hours and spans only two roads, two Interstate highways. But as recently as the late 1970s it was not quite so simple. Chris’s mom recalls harrowing two-lane rural roads she had to take to visit her husband while he was studying at the medical school in Morgantown.
We re-drew our route to maximize the scenery during daylight hours and then planned to hurry home once the sun was working its way down. We set out on U.S. Route 60 east to Charleston and then planned to trace U.S. Route 119 to W.V. Route 4, following the Elk River into Gassaway and then heading over to Sutton and Flatwoods. From Flatwoods we figured it’d be time to drive the last 90 miles on the interstate.
When Chris and I lived in Huntington, U.S. Route 60 was our favorite route to Charleston. Very unobtrusively it offers insight into life along the road for as long as people have lived in the region. The street names, often ending in “turnpike” suggest the importance of the rolling hills of the area for the infancy of the transportation network in the region. Old and disused schools and even an old hospital for disabled children all fall so close to what was once the true main street of this corridor of West Virginia. More recently, 1950s and 1960s era motels are in varying condition. Some have been converted into homes and others have been rebuilt, or at least repainted, on the strip in places like St. Albans and Jefferson.
In Charleston we traded in 60 for U.S. Route 119, which heads north out of Charleston as Pennsylvania Ave, probably as an indication of where this road will ultimately take you. From Charleston to Clendenin the route traces the western banks of the Elk River. The Elk River had recent fame when a poorly maintained tank of coal washing fluid leaked into the river and poisoned the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians encompassing parts of nine counties. Driving the route between Charleston and Clendenin, it is clear that it was once a “working” river, perhaps comparable with the broader and better known rivers further north, like the Monongahela and the Ohio, based on the rusted out hulks of industry dotting both banks.
In Clendenin we figured the opportunities to get a good meal were likely going to sparse, if they existed at all. Knowing it’d be about 2 hours to get into the Gassaway-Sutton-Flatwoods area, which is ripe with places to eat, we stopped at a Gino’s for a pubwich. The food was good but the place was full of characters. We ate with purpose before hitting the road. Places like Clendenin may have once been nice but now seem unkempt and uninviting to outsiders.
Clendenin also offers travelers some choice when heading north. U.S. Route 119 takes a 90-degree left turn and heads toward Spencer and Glenville, while W.V. Route 4 begins here and follows the Elk River all of the way into Sutton, where the road deviates from the river and heads north toward its terminus in Rock Cave. The mountainous landscape of West Virginia disguises it, but the Elk River is incredibly windy. A careful look at a map shows a road that is constantly meandering and making grand loops where a few bridges might suffice. Though there was a time where if the land enabled it, it was more efficient financially to follow the river than try to construct a bridge. And with the development of I-79 never more than a few miles away, there has never been a great need to upgrade W.V. Route 4 as a through route.
On Route 4 you travel through towns that largely seem forgotten by time, dotted with country churches, dirt roads donning the surnames of local families, and the odd bar in such disrepair that it is unclear whether it is still in operation. Procious, Maysel, Ivydale, Duck, Strange Creek, and Frametown all seem as if they’d make perfectly nice rural river retreats. There is not a traffic signal to be found until you make it into Gassaway.
The entire time we traveled on our bank of the Elk River, we hypothesized that a railroad had traveled the other side of the river at some point. Indeed, we were correct. In Gassaway we were treated to the sight of an active, though sleepy, rail yard of the old Coal and Coke Railway. Gassaway acted as the boundary between the Charleston and Elkins division of this railroad so it was also a logical place to install substantial infrastructure, which included a passenger depot and maintenance shops. Today it is served by the Elk River Railroad, which is an abbreviated version of the original road running between Gassaway and Gilmer.
From Gassaway we headed toward Flatwoods, past the Braxton County Medical Center and an on-ramp for I-79. It was beginning to get dark, as it does so early at the end of December, but we were treated to one more surprise. The road connects Sutton with Flatwoods and it is dotted with trailers, cabins, and motels. One of the motels, it appeared, had a recent spell of bad luck when a large tree collapsed on top of what appeared to be the main office. Though, unless my internet sleuthing skills are failing me, it is unclear if that specific motel was even operating at the time. While somewhat unnerving to have noticed, life in West Virginia often seems to be about the tenuous relationship between man and nature.
We made it into Flatwoods only a few moments later. Flatwoods is home to a somewhat unusual outlet mall, though there are two amazing things there: a bulk foods store and a Fiestaware outlet. After short stops at each followed by some Kentucky Fried Chicken at a location that had recently been on fire on our last visit to town, we decided that we really were finished with the scenic route and hurried home along I-79.