The site of Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park was purchased by the State of West Virginia in January 1928. It was dedicated on July 4, 1929, as a shrine to the casualties of the battle fought there on November 6, 1863 – which was the last important battle between the men of the Union and the men of the Confederacy. The panoramic photograph of the dedication day event was taken by Cal Gay. This story of the festivities as seen through the eyes of Editor Calvin W. Price appeared the following week on the front page of The Pocahontas Times.
DROOP MOUNTAIN MEETING
The Fourth of July celebration on Droop Mountain has become an institution. Pocahontas County, especially the Little Levels District, following the example of 1928, put on one of the most notable gatherings every held in West Virginia.
The attendance was variously estimated from eight to ten thousand persons.
This year it was thought that there would be a falling off on account of something like a hundred miles of the Seneca Trail being under contract for surfacing and the public engaged in playing the difficult game of detour. But to keep the record straight it was thought best to have the meeting.
It was a bright day, and the lookout of Droop Mountain brings on the grateful and harmless exhilaration of height, and there is no place in West Virginia where an assembly can reach a mountain height so easily as the battle ground on Droop Mountain.
The state police handled the traffic perfectly and the day was not marred by a single accident. A truck load of passengers broke loose from its brakes on a hill side but was saved by the old barn on the side of the road from taking a header over a cliff.
There is no county in West Virginia that takes such a pride and delight in feeding a multitude. The feasts were spread on the carpets of grass and much grub was carried home after the people had been fed.
The Durbin brass band discoursed fine music, and the county singers were in good voice.
Charles A. Sharp had charge of the concessions and furnished the crowd with soft drinks and other refreshments to the satisfaction of all.
There was a battery of big guns to speak to a crowd that could not be reached by the human voice to its outer fringes so big it was. Next year it is to be hoped there will be amplifiers.
There were about three hours of intellectual and artistic entertainment. Andrew Price presided. Rev. Randolph Atkinson offered an invocation. Rev. S. R. Neel made an oration on the lofty aims (of the) Junior Order of Mechanics. Judge Geo. W. McClintic addressed the assembly upon the duties of the good citizen in this emergency and the importance of peace. Our guarantee of peace depends upon our ability to defend ourselves. That when and if the next war comes its cost must be borne by the wealthy especially of the class who came out of the late great war richer than they went into it.
G. D. McNeill gave a thirty-minute report on the movements of the troops in the Battle of Droop Mountain. Judge Lively, Chief Justice of West Virginia, spoke briefly and allowed the crowd to see the cut of his jib. Dr. Geo. West Diehl, late President of Morris Harvey College, addressed the assembly to the same extent. Alf Taylor made a ringing patriotic speech. Col. John C. Sutton who fought in the battle had a carefully prepared address. In addition, the following Civil War Veterans spoke briefly: John Tyler, Peter McCarty, Veteran Cutlip of Greenbrier county, Gen. M. J. McNeel, Col. T. H. Dennis, and Noah McCoy.
The meeting adjourned to meet at the same place one year from that day, when it will be in celebration of the completion of the Seneca Trail, the great North Road of West Virginia. One hundred and ninety eight miles of the only practical north and south through West Virginia. We do not know how much it will cost but it will mean many millions, ten millions anyway, would be my guess, and it will be the favorite road for tourists.
The public-spirited men, the Kiwanis Club, and the various committees, are to be complimented for their success in this huge meeting. It is an event in the life of the county. And it is so easy to make history in the way where the public is aroused to the importance of keeping alive the memory of our heroic dead.
It took a good deal of gasoline but not much more than would have been burned in aimless wandering. And besides the gasoline did not cost nearly as much as the old time Fourth of July whiskey bill. -30-
(Photo from the Pocahontas County Historical Society Collection; ID: PHS000285)
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