By Stephen Smoot
In the Year of Our Lord 2024, Canaan Valley draws visitors from all over, all year long. Steady streams of Virgina, Maryland, and District of Columbia license plates roam the broad modern roadway known by locals as Corridor H and officialdom as US 48. Still more visitors stream in from the west, coming from Charleston, Clarksburg, and the Mountain State’s other major metro areas. Local businesses offer a variety of victuals, live music, places to stay, and curiosities to buy to the countless throngs that come for rest and recreation.
For almost the entirety of history, however, Canaan Valley existed as a remote and extreme land offering little opportunity to produce from the land. What could be found and used, such as game animals and timber, lived in prodigious numbers in much easier to reach places.
According to an article entitled “The History of Canaan Valley: A Valley Transformed,” Indians resided comfortably in nearby areas like Seneca Rocks and Parsons, but in the forbidding highlands between, “the land was so unforgiving that Native Americans were not known to travel into Canaan Valley.”
“For thousands of years,” it reads, “there were simply no signs of human activity in Canaan Valley.”
The first settlers came into the region in 1748. Battling the thick growth of tall virgin red spruce and the underlying rhododendron thickets proved so prosperous that it took 120 years to find the next settler willing to try his hand. Large scale industrial timbering by the end of the 19th century denuded the land of its forests, but opened the land for more.
A very gradual drift of setters found their way to the valley with the highest elevation in the United States east of the Mississippi. They drove the narrow, winding back roads to get in and out while braving some of the most extreme eastern weather conditions south of the Mason and Dixon line.
Others, however, saw potential in the land, but from a most unexpected place. Airline pilots ferrying passengers to and from Washington, DC, noticed interesting characteristics on the landscape as they flew over Canaan Valley. Almost every pilot on the route was a skiing enthusiast.
Some started to notice the presence of a persistent snow cover that lasted into May and sometimes even July. Called by them “the glacier,” it is described in the Ski Club of Washington DC 50th Anniversary Edition as “600 feet long by some 80 feet wide with a varying depth of up to 15 feet.” It was located on Cabin Mountain.
Mike Mullens, museum board member and area ski instructor, explained that people from the DC area “used to ski in Pennsylvania in the 40s and 50s. Laurel Mountain Slopes served as the main attraction for those who sought to ski, but lived in the Mid Atlantic. The Ski Club anniversary edition noted, however, that “it was often crowded and lacked sufficient snow cover.”
In August 1951, Gorman Young, the new club president, and Hal Leich called a meeting to discuss investing $550 to set up its own ski area, the first south of the Mason and Dixon Line. By October of that year, the club committed to developing a ski area there.
And the rest is history.
That history is chronicled by the Snow Sports Museum of West Virginia. Located off of West Virginia Route 32 between Davis and the Canaan Valley Resort, the museum covers snow sports excellence for the entire state.
Kim Williams, who serves as both president and volunteer chair, shared that “when we first started our museum, we knew it was going to take some work to get it up and running.” The labor of love and history started in 2018 and features, as its website describes “features rotating exhibits that honor the state’s diverse snow sports stories and legends.”
After receiving official non profit status, the board of directors and officials worked on getting a location. The location changed multiple times before settling in at its current location, by the Canaan Valley Store.
Next, they set to work on collecting artifacts and using old skis, other ski and snow sports related tools, decades of snow-making equipment, photographs, promotional posters, and more to create a narrative to tell the story of snow sports, not just in Canaan Valley, but across the state.
Williams stated that Kate Hayes, the historian, put together many of the materials. He described her as “a sweet little old lady and she really loves the museum.”
Inside, visitors find the stories of people, places, and events that make the narrative of Mountain States snow sports such a significant narrative.
One of the highlights is the Hall of Fame, which features photographs and biographies of individuals significant in a variety of snow sports. Jennifer Rhule of Charleston, for example, started figure skating at the age of 10, competing internationally for the first time at 11 in 1975. She skated with Robbie Baker, with whom she won regional titles.
Rhule had her sights set on the Olympics. In 1982, she and Baker earned the highest gold test qualification. Then tragedy set in as she suffered severe injuries in a car crash. A traumatic brain injury left her blind, able to only see vague lights and shadows.
This is where the truly remarkable part happened. She took a ski class at her college, West Virginia Wesleyan, then gained more experience on the slopes of Snowshoe Mountain. She also dedicated her work life to serving in various roles with disability support organizations, eventually serving as executive director of the Brain Injury Association of West Virginia.
Ruhle continued to pursue her new winter sports passion, skiing. She rejoined her former skating partner, Baker, and won medals in national competitions.
She and 29 others form the Hall of Fame.
Artifacts also are on display around the museum, each telling a different story. Displayed on the wall are sets of skis, including a set used by the legendary Jean Claude Killy at Snowshoe. Visitors can likewise see a number of promotional posters from major ski events to state tourism displays from decades ago.
Even more important, the museum contains artifacts related to the area training of the United States Army’s 10th Mountain Division.
The museum always seeks out ways to spread the word on its work and events. This fall, the museum will conclude an agreement with Mountain River Media’s Justin Harris. Williams explained that “we started talking to him several years ago.” He quipped that they wanted to get the project done “while we’re still over ground and not underground.”
He added that “a lot of museums never do this and then they kick themselves.”
Jessica Waldo, executive director of the Tucker County Convention and Visitors Bureau, sees the museum as a real asset to tourism promotion. She explained that “when visitors come to the area, they are always fascinated by the history.”
Canaan Valley’s unique appeal lies in it being a magnet throughout the year for a variety of recreational activities. Waldo says that many summer visitors miss out on the fact that the area is a four season destination. The museum and the history it teaches helps to get that word out.
