Back to West Virginia

The family was supposed to camp at Coopers Rock in West Virginia over Labor Day weekend, but there was rain of tsunami-like proportions.  I ended up staying by myself over Friday and Sunday nights.  My wife stayed by herself on Saturday night.  All our camping gear got saturated.  But it was a good place to be.

I hiked alone down to the bottom of the canyon that you see in the top photo and found the peaceful Cheat Lake.  I camped out on the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River late last fall--way, way up in the mountains and very far from this part of the state.

And then last Sunday I finally took my kids to do the tour of the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville.  It was spectacular!  One of Jimmy Stewart's worst and last movies was filmed in that area of West Virginia--Marshall County--and I watched it in its entirety on YouTube.  There are scenes from the prison.  A very young Kurt Russell is also in the flick.

It's a stately enough place from the outside, but truly hellish within.

This cell is 5 feet x 7 feet, and they used to cram three prisoners into these cells by adding a top bunk and making the weakest or smallest one sleep on the floor with his head under the toilet.  The tour guide said that if they tried to sleep with their heads near the cage doors, someone would cut their throats in the night.  Ghost chasers love this place.  In fact, they love the whole town of Moundsville, which is built on an ancient Indian graveyard--apparently.

We took the historic tour of the prison; they also do a "haunted" tour in which they take you into solitary confinement, the psych ward, and the hospital ward.