Dear Editor:
Having been born and imprinted in my youth by those beautiful mountains of Pocahontas County and environs, I continue to maintain an active interest in the wellbeing of the county, whether habitat preservation, public libraries, etc.
With that, I offer this commentary regarding the natural beauty of the county.
Since we, as a nation, are observing the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, there are a couple of quotations from that period that have application today.
When Robert E. Lee was on his first combat assignment in the mountains of western Virginia, he wrote, in his letter of August 4, 1861, about the beauty of the mountains to Mary Lee. He expressed: “I enjoyed the mountains as I rode along. The views are magnificent, the valleys so beautiful, the scenery so peaceful. What a glorious world Almighty God has given us. How thankless and ungrateful we are, and how we labour to mar his gifts.”
Despite much of the virgin forest being harvested and its slow recovery, Lee’s words “beauty” and magnificent” still apply to the mountains and valleys of Pocahontas County.
In his One Jackson’s Foot Cavalry, John Worsham wrote: “On October 9 [1861] we left Elk Mountain for Edray, marching amidst the most beautiful scenery I ever saw, the trees having taken on their brilliant colors of fall.” He added: “We went regularly into camp on the banks of the beautiful Greenbrier, on a piece of low ground that was almost level and afforded plenty of room for camp and drill.”
One of the most aesthetic memories I have of Pocahontas, from the vicinity of my father’s farm at Edray, is the early spring view to the east-northeast. I recall a peaceful scene of a pasture sward with sheep grazing, accented by the still defoliated border of forest.
In preserving the beauty of Pocahontas County, let us heed the admonishment of Lee and our preservation contemporaries by not marring His gifts. Let us preserve the bucolic setting of Pocahontas County. Preserve: no fracking, no dams, no mining, no waste dumping, and no avian-harvesting wind mills.
Green side up!
Offered for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas Shrader
Austin, Texas.
A shared letter from Pocahontas County Senior Citizens, Inc. to Susie Landis regarding a fundraiser held during Pioneer Days.
Dear Ms. Landis:
The Pocahontas County Senior Citizens, Inc. would like to take this opportunity to send you their sincere thanks and appreciation for the very generous donation that you made to us. I think that it is really great that you have gone through this fundraiser to help feed the needy seniors in Pocahontas County. The federal and even more, the state budget cuts, have put a real strain on our nutritional budget, but thanks to kind, sharing folks like you, we are able to continue. We are pressuring our legislators to replace at least a portion of the cuts that have been made two years in a row, and hopefully they will respond.
We now have 104 seniors who are homebound in the county that receive our hot, nutritious meals five days per week. To many of them, that’s the only balanced meal that they have each day. We are very happy to help with our senior programs here in Pocahontas and look forward to continuing, and thanks to great folks like you, we will continue. May God bless you for sharing with others. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
John Simmons, Director