Harrison County

Welcome to Harrison County, WV

Harrison County was created in 1784 and named for Benjamin Harrison, father of the 9th President and grandfather of the 23rd President. The county spans 417 miles and has a population of approximately 68,600. The per capita income is $16,810, with approximately 17% of the population below the poverty line. 


Within Harrison County, we visited the cities of Bridgeport, Clarksburg, Salem, Shinnston, and Stonewood, towns including Anmoore, Lumberport, Nutter Fort, and West Milford. We also drove through unincorporated towns including Despard and Enterprise. 

Our first stop in Harrison County was the city of Shinnston. Shinnston was settled in 1778. Levi Shinn, for whom the town is named for, built the log cabin pictured here, now over 230 years old. 

One thing that I did gather from my short visit to Shinnston, this is certainly a very community oriented place! 

A unique note about Shinnston - in June of 1944, the city was nearly completely destroyed by a violent tornado. This tornado still remains one of the worst to ever hit the state of West Virginia. Fifty eight people were killed in Shinnston alone, with a total of 103 killed in WV, and 846 seriously injured.

We decided to make this our "funny sign" of the day. Your guess is as good as any. From what I can gather from some vague forums, some tires were slashed, at least one vehicle was burnt, and there appears to be a cover-up of some sort. The hush-hush has, in return, made some in the community try to bring attention to the ordeal. 

Yet again, another drive-in theater in West Virginia. The Sunset Theater is located just outside of Shinnston. Admission is $6.00, and movies play Friday -Monday. 

Clarksburg, the county seat of Harrison County, has a population just below 17,000. Although one side of the town is riddled with abandoned factories, new technology has begun to make it's way to the city. In 1995, the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division moved to Clarksburg. 

Pictured here is the Harrison County Courthouse in Clarksburg. Clarksburg was named after General George Rogers Clark.

Clarksburg is very proud to be the birthplace of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. A statue in Jackson's honor sits in front of the courthouse, and there are numerous street lamp banners throughout the city. 

Clarksburg is well known for the events and festivals that occur annually, including the WV Italian Heritage Festival, WV Black Heritage Festival, Glen Elk Wine, Music, and Arts Festival, and the Cecil Jarvis Greater Clarksburg 10K race. 

I think this is our random photo of the county. I caught a glimpse of this as we were driving through Clarksburg. We turned around and came back just to get a better picture. It's a statue of Marilyn Monroe, in her classic pose, and it sits on the 3rd floor balcony of an apartment building. If it's the real deal, Ebay has one listed for over  $1000 dollars. Quite an odd porch decoration dont you think?

Just outside of Clarksburg we found a historical sign about the Oak Mounds, built by Indians between 1 and 1000 AD. After driving for some time, we never quite found the mounds. But we did come across this odd little lump of Earth that we thought might possibly be a mound?? For those of you familiar with this area, we'd greatly appreciate a comment at the bottom of this page as to whether this is indeed a mound or not. 

Pictured here is the Nathan Goff Armory in Clarksburg. Nathan Goff, born and raised in Clarksburg, was a member of the United States Congress, served as Secretary of the Navy, and was also elected to the United States Senate. 

This farm picture represents the rural area of Harrison County. This particular photo was taken between Clarksburg and Lost Creek, WV. 

A very neat place that Bev and I stumbled upon, was Watters Smith Memorial State Park in Lost Creek, WV. The Smith family settled the land in 1796 and established a farm. The farm was handed down over the generations, and in 1949 Burr Smith, great-great grandson of the original settlers, willed the farm to the state to be used as a park. 

The park maintains the various buildings on the property, including an old barn, blacksmith and carpenter shop, outhouse, log cabin, corn crib, and a family house that was built in 1876 and is now used as one of the two museums on the property.

Here Bev peers into the replica outhouse at Watters Smith Park as we explored the grounds. The museum at the park is open on Sundays and has many of the original tools that were used on the farm, along with brochures and other information about frontier life. 

The park is very, very well maintained. Along with providing your family with a great history lesson, the other side of the also offers a public swimming pool, bike and hiking trails, fishing, and a picnic area. Check it out for yourself! http://www.watterssmithstatepark.com/

Check this out. Pictured here is Harrison County's Recreation Complex and 4-H Center. This three million dollar facility houses the county's park and recreation office, a satellite office of the WVU Extension Service, and has several rooms that can be used for meetings, reunions, weddings, and other large gatherings.

Next, Bev and I drove to Salem, a small little town just off of Route 50.

An interesting note about the town of Salem, is that it is prone to fires. In 1901, fire swept through the town destroying 10 acres of businesses and homes and displacing over 200 people. (Photo credit: http://www.salemwv.com/)

The aftermath of the 1901 fire is shown here. No one knows for sure what started the fire. Most of the buildings were made from wood, which accounts for why the fire was able to spread so quickly. (Photo credit: http://www.salemwv.com/)

In 2006, a fire broke out on the same city block as the original 1901 disaster. Five businesses were destroyed before the fire was extinguished. (Photo credit: Darren Queen Wboy-TV)

Salem is also home to Salem International University, a 300 acre campus that was established in 1888. 

Right above Salem University, is the Fort New Salem. This log house settlement was built by the university to represent the 19th century frontier and to act as an outdoor history museum, from relocated structures. 

The fort is currently closed, but, well, there weren't exactly any signs posting that. Bev and I visited during lunch hour, and found the gates opened and just wandered through. We wondered why there seemed to be construction everywhere and nothing was opened! 

There doesn't seem to be a known re-open date. Lots of construction, including tearing down some cabins and rebuilding/restructuring others is occurring. It is a neat place to visit though, so if interested please keep checking their website!! http://www.fortnewsalemfoundation.org/

We ate lunch in Clarksburg, WV at Minards Spaghetti Inn, where we had..drumroll.... spaghetti!! It was a very tasty lunch, and unfortunately we were so hungry that we completely forgot to photograph our meal. We shared a large portion of spaghetti, meatballs, and ravioli. 

Next we drove through the town of Stonewood. Pictured here is the fire department and their neat yellow trucks. 

Although this isn't the greatest picture, I wanted to mention the Meadowbrook Mall in Bridgeport, which has over 100 stores. To check it out, visit their website at : www.meadowbrookmall.com

Next, we drove through the town of Lost Creek, WV. Lost Creek used to be the largest shipping point for cattle in West Virginia and along the entire B&O Railroad system during the 1920's. 

Here, the Lost Creek Train Depot is shown. A sign out front says that it is currently undergoing a rehabilitation. 

The Simpson Creek Covered Bridge in Bridgeport is 75' long and 14 ' wide. It was originally built in 1881 at the cost of $1483. In 1899, a flood washed the bridge 1/2 mile upstream from it's original location where it now resides. The bridge was just recently renovated in 2001, costing nearly $400,000. A picnic table inside makes this a nice little stop on a road trip!

Smoke stacks in Haywood are visible from nearby towns. We took this picture as we were driving to nearby Lumberport. 

Driving through Lumberport, the "cloudmakers", as named by Bev's nephew, are still very visible on the horizon.

Next, we paid a visit to a coal mine, Consul Energy's Robinson Run Mine #95. To the left of the picture you can see a large pile of coal. This was the first mine I've ever seen up close!

Directly down from the large pile of coal, was this stream of water that was being filtered before it flowed off of the property. You can see how orange the water looks here (it had not previously rained). 

This was really neat to see. Running adjacent to the roadway is a coal conveyor, carrying coal from the mine in the picture above, up over the mountains to the power plant several towns away (with the pictures of the smoke stacks!). 

And that folks, was Harrison County in a nutshell! Lots of history and neat places to visit!

The short video above shows a few of the towns that we drove through while exploring Harrison County. Please take a moment to watch!

If you experience an error while trying to watch the video above, try clicking on this link to watch the video on Youtube. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_EffA78PX0

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