Thursday, April 25, 1974
CHEAT MOUNTAIN
By Skip Johnson
Spring comes slowly to Cheat Mountain. The hardwood trees still are barren of leaves, and banks of snow linger on the ground well into late April or early May.
Last week, low-hanging gray clouds rolled across Cheat, bringing rain and snow, and there was an arctic bite to the wind as it whistled through the red spruce.
But whatever the season, Cheat is West Virginia’s best known mountain range – except for the origin of its name.
“There are several theories, including that it was named for a French-Canadian trapper-explorer named Jacques Cheate; that it was named because the river of the same name is deceptive and has cheated many people of their lives; or that it was named for a grass that looked like wheat but wasn’t, thereby cheating early settlers out of food.
Dr. Earl L. Core, professor emeritus of biology at West Virginia University, said he is inclined to believe the second theory. The river has a dark color and its depth is deceptive,” he explained.
“It seems a rather unlikely explanation, but I prefer it over the other two.”
Cheat, extending about 25 miles through Pocahontas and Randolph counties, is different things to different people.
TO DR. EUGENE HUTTON, JR. of Elkins, it is a lifelong botanical and geological fascination.
Hutton says the Cheat range is closely related geologically to Asia.
“Ninety percent of the plants found there are common to Asia,” he pointed out. Several Arctic-related plants also are found on Cheat.
TO CHARLEY CROMER, of Durbin, Cheat is a faint memory. Cromer, 89, is a retired railroader who started firing engines for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co. in 1904 during the glory days of logging on Cheat.
“It was just a big forest of timber and laurel,” he said.
Charley’s father, Harvey Cromer, came to Cheat in 1886 as a surveyor for the same company. He wrote many of the panther tales that graced the pages of the late Cal Price’s Pocahontas Times.
TO DABNEY KISNER, owner of the Pocahontas Motel on Cheat on U. S. 250, the mountain is a good place to bear hunt, providing you’re capable of following a pack of dogs through tangled spruce and rhododendron thickets.
“There are more logging roads than when I came here 21 years ago,” Kisner said. “But I can’t complain. I’m usually the first person to use them.”
TO BOB BURRELL, of Morgantown, author of a book on wildwater boating in West Virginia, Cheat is the birthplace of “the big mountain river.”
Shavers Fork River heads on Cheat and races along at an elevation of more than 3,700 feet – making it the highest river of its size in the eastern United States.
TO PASSENGERS on the Cass Scenic Railroad, Cheat is the long climb to the top of 4,242-foot Bald Knob – the second highest point in the state.
TO MOTORISTS driving along U. S. 250 from Elkins to Huttonsville, Cheat is the mountain range rising prou-dly to the left of the valley. This drive affords the best view of Cheat.
TO JAMES TROTTER, who carried the mail across the mountain on horseback in the 1800s, Cheat was the road to immortality. One day, he received a nasty letter from the postmaster general in Washington about tardy deliveries, and his reply became legendary in the annals of the postal service.
“If you knock the gable end out of hell and back it up against Cheat Mountain, and rain fire and brimstone for 40 days and 40 nights, it won’t melt the snow enough to get your damned mail through on time.”
INSTALLATION
Sunday evening, April 28, the Reverend Richard L. Newkirk will be installed as the minister of Marlinton Presbyterian Church. … Mr. Newkirk is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College. He received the B. D. degree from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, and has the M. A. Degree from Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Richmond…
WEDDING
Mrs. Florence B. Hinds proudly announces the marriage of her daughter, Sandra Michelle Hinds, to Ronald Franklin England, of Oak Hill. Sunday, the newly married couple visited the bride’s mother and her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. I. B. Bumgardner in Marlinton.
BIRTH
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Mullenax, of Arbovale, a daughter named Lisa Lynn.
DEATHS
Mrs. Cora Frances VanMeter, 60; born at Slaty Fork, a daughter of David and Jemima Johnson Hannah. Funeral service was held in the Slaty Fork United Methodist Church by Rev. Richard Newkirk. Burial in the Gibson Cemetery. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jacob VanMeter; and one son, Jacob VanMeter, who was killed in Vietnam.
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Mrs. Nettie Blanche Tracy Malcom, 81, of White Sulphur Springs, a native of Boyer. Burial in Rosewood Cemetery in Lewisburg.
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Cameron J. Wickline, 55, of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, formerly of Hillsboro, a son of the late James W. and Lena P. Dameron Wickline. He was a member of the Lobelia Methodist Church and a World War II veteran. Burial in New Oxford Cemetery.