Cass Scenic Railroad

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This week we traveled up and around the mountains to Cass, West Virginia. The mountains and valleys were beautiful with large farms in most of the valleys.

Cass was settled by loggers. There was a huge paper mill there that produced fine papers for publications such as The New Yorker and Harper's, etc.  The town was bombing mill town. All of the many houses looked exactly alike. The paper mill burned in 1901, and was rebuilt.  The railroad was used to transport the lumber.  Now there are very few residents of Cass, maybe about 80. They do the Scenic Railroad tours from May to October.  Many things have to shut down for the winter months.  The kids went back to school this week in most counties in West Virginia,even though they didn't get out until July because of 30 days missed this school year for weather. Wow! I am so thankful I get to experience this way of life right now! Just think what I was doing this time last year!

Anyway, the train cars were pulled or pushed depending on the direction we were going by a 19th century coal burning engine. We traveled up as much as a 9% grade and up to over 3000 feet above sea level. We saw beautiful forest and even experienced two fawns that ran up beside our train. The ride was one hour and 1\2 long. It took us about 2 hours to drive there and we were only 9 miles from Snowshoe, West Virginia, a skiing resort we vacationed at probably in 1981.  We got snowed in and the wind chill was way below zero, I just don't remember how low, but the ski slopes were closed. I wanted to see Snowshoe in the summer but we decided to drive back because we had that long a distance. We are staying in the Greenbrier River Campground near Lewisburg and not far from White Sulfur Springs. That is where the famous Greenbrier Resort is and the Sam Sneer Golf Course where one of the well-known golf tournaments are played. Also, during this week and I'm sure others, the New Orleans Saints are having their practice training there.  The Greenbrier is supposed to have underground bunkers that the government had put in I think in the early 60s. Some nuclear weapons were housed there. Anyway, just to let you know Greenbrier is the wealthiest county in West Virginia. Even one of the large coal mining operations is declaring bankruptcy according to the news. Many of the small towns we travel through are poor and pretty empty in the business sections. We are traveling to Blacksburg, Virginia, about an hour and 1/2 away to the Stepping Out Festival. It has been spot raining since last night.  I'll share more later. I am loving this way of life, but miss family and friends!