Shavers Mountain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Shavers Mountain | |
| Mountain | |
 Shavers Mountain (in distance) at Cheat Bridge, West Virginia
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| Country |  United States |
|---|---|
| State |  West Virginia |
| Counties | Pocahontas, Randolph, Tucker |
| Range | Allegheny Mountains |
| Summit | Big Knob in Randolph County, West Virginia |
| - elevation | 3,793 ft (1,156.1 m) [1] |
| - prominence | 640 ft (195.1 m) [2] |
| - coordinates | |
| Highest point | Gaudineer Knob |
| - location | Pocahontas and Randolph Counties, West Virginia |
| - elevation | 4,432 ft (1,350.9 m) [3] |
| - coordinates | |
| Topo maps | USGS Durbin, Glady, Wildell, Beverly East, Bowden, Harman, Mozark Mountain |
| Nearest city | Durbin, West Virginia |
  Location of Big Knob in West Virginia
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Shavers Mountain, is a high and rugged ridge situated in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia. It is about 35 miles long, north to south, and several of its peaks exceed 4,000 feet in elevation. Shavers Mountain is notable for being “bookended”, at it’s northern and southern ends, by two exceptional natural areas: the Otter Creek Wilderness and the Gaudineer Scenic Area, respectively, both of which preserve small stands of old growth forest on the mountain.
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[edit] Geography
Most of Shavers Mountain lies within eastern Randolph County, although along its southern third its crest forms the boundary between Randolph and Pocahontas. Shavers Mountain is defined to the west by the valley of Shavers Fork and to the east by the valley of Glady Fork and (upstream) by Glady’s West Fork. (The major mountain ridge to Shavers’ west is Cheat Mountain and to its east is Middle Mountain.) At its northern extremity, just into Tucker County, the so-called Shaver's Fork Mountain Complex also includes Green and McGowan Mountains. Shavers Mountain itself reaches a terminus in a bend of Dry Fork of Cheat River, just below its confluence with Glady Fork, near the town of Gladwin. At its southern extremity, Shavers Mountain achieves its highest elevation of 4,432 feet (1,351 m) at Gaudineer Knob, about 1.2 miles (1.9 km) east of Cheat Bridge). South of here, across U.S. Route 250, the same structural fold of the earth’s crust continues as Back Allegheny Mountain.
[edit] History
According to E.C. Wyatt, a local historian who published in the The Randolph Enterprise newspaper in the 1920s [4], the mountain was named for Peter Shaver, an early settler to the area who was killed by Indians. Wyatt believed that in 1848 his grandfather, Ellis Wyatt, became the first man to build a house on Shavers Mountain. Ellis was a farmer, merchant, civil engineer, surveyor, constable, deputy sheriff, and a miller. He was apparently the first and only man to vote a Democratic ticket in the Dry Fork District in the first election held after the Civil War. Indeed, no Democratic ticket had been printed in the District, so one had to be written to accommodate him. In June of 1879, Ellis Wyatt became the first postmaster of the town of Alpena, holding the position until 1897.
The timber industry in West Virginia grew rapidly towards the end of the 19th century. In the early 1900s, Shavers Mountain was almost completely denuded of trees. For the most part, native trees have been allowed to grow back naturally, with only some non-native Norway spruce planted on top of the mountain in the 1920s.
[edit] Preservation and recreation
Most of Shavers Mountain lies within the Monongahela National Forest. The Shavers Mountain Spruce-Hemlock Stand is a 68 acre virgin red spruce-hemlock stand, partly within the Otter Creek Wilderness. (The Otter Creek Wilderness lies in a bowl formed by Shavers Mountain and McGowan Mountain.) The Gaudineer Scenic Area, encompassing 140 acres around Gaudineer Knob, includes about 50 acres of virgin red spruce forest.
The Shavers Mountain Trail, somewhat strenuous but affording exceptional views, is 10 miles (16 km) long. [5].
[edit] References
- ^ Big Knob. Geographic Names Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved on 2008-06-03.
- ^ West Virginia Summits. PeakList.org. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
- ^ Gaudineer Knob. Geographic Names Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved on 2008-06-03.
- ^ Wyatt, E.C. (1922-1923) History of the Early Settlers of Dry Fork, Rich Mountain and Shavers Mountain, Ten articles originally published in The Randolph Enterprise newspaper in 1922-23; Now archived at Rootsweb.
- ^ de Hart, Allen and Bruce Sundquist (2006), Monongahela National Forest Hiking Guide, 8th edition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Charleston, West Virginia, pg 106.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Shavers Mountain Survey Project, an effort by cavers of the VAR (Virginia Region of the NSS) to locate, push and survey the caves of Shavers Mountain.
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