Solivagant USA

A week in Charleston, West Virginia proved to me, once again, that I often find surprises in unexpected places. My 86-year-old mother lived here in 1941. Her father was an engineer for Union Carbide, which should have been a clue that this capitol city of 50,000 people located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers is more than coal stories. Charleston is the largest city in WVA, and I walked its river path and streets daily, keenly aware that the mountains were within arms reach. I was completely unaware, however, of decades of chemical industry research and plants, and salt mines worked with slaves.

Eating breakfast one morning I learned about a family whose ancestors owned and worked salt mines. Descendents are now in the modern salt business. Salt, of course, was needed to preserve meat and other uses as pioneers moved west. Salt was the beginning of a series of industries that have come and gone in WVA, leaving hopes behind. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/the-past-is-never-past-west-virginia-salt-works-edition/383493/

I spent a day digging through three boxes of Union Carbide files at the State Archives. As more than one person told me, “Bhopal, not demise of coal, killed WVA.” As a graduate student in the 1980s in Houston, Texas I’d studied the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal as a lesson in public relations gone wrong. Decades later I overheard a conversation in an expat restaurant in Beijing China between two Americans who were discussing the final settlements, and the death of Union Carbide. Ignorantly, I’d always associated chemicals and their flares, smells, and, transportation with the gulf coast cities. I’d overlooked the Ohio River, and its downstream rivers. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1124

Taking the train north to Manassas, Virginia, on my #38daywithnoitinary I listened to the docent from the Colis P. Huntington Historical Society narrate information about the New River, railroad towns, and industries along the way. http://www.newrivertrain.com/index.shtml

I reflected on the frustration my pioneer ancestors must have felt as they climbed one mountain, only to see waves of more ahead of them. The rivers must have been a joy, until the came upon the waterfalls, animals, and dense foliage that this day in May I find spectacular. The New River Gorge is stunning. https://www.nps.gov/neri/index.htm

I expected the beauty of WVA, and the railroad as part of the first transcontinental line. I’ve ridden thousands of miles on trains around the world, and enjoy train travel and its history in the U.S. rihttp://www.american-rails.com/collis-p-huntington.html

I also expected to enjoy the diversity of music in the Mountain State along with its natural beauty. I didn’t expect to discover natural resources that have been exploited for decades, and then abandoned by government, industries, and people for the next shiny object. People know that coal is not coming back. They’ve already learned that lesson.