By Charles Teter
The year was about 1945. I was about five years old and at times would ride to Circleville from Riverton with my father, George Teter. I remember seeing the trustees prison camp at the junction working.
They lived in tents and broke up rocks with a big hammer for bed rock to build the road to Circleville and beyond.
Lester Smith was one of the guards, plus several others from the North Fork area.
If one knows where to look, you can see the spring box where they got water.
Two men met at the junction and one man left his car. When he returned the car was gone. A couple of prisoners stole the car. About a week or two later, the car was found and returned to its original owner. The prisoners who stole the car returned to Moundsville in Morgantown for harder labor.
The prisoners were working on the road through Circleville. One prisoner found a sponge ball in the old road and gave it to a little girl who was watching them through the fences. The little girl was Shirley Nelson, Bond Dove’s wife.
The prisoners built the road over Elk Mountain to the science camp at Bartow. At least they built it straight. The road from Riverton to Seneca Rocks was built by the state of West Virginia.
The engineer who laid out the road had a lot of curves in it. Later on, as he was traveling on the road, Route 33, he wrecked his car and was killed.
I have several interesting people in my antique store. One man said he drove the team of horses that put in the electric lines through the area.
