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Full title: “Recreation Resources: The State Parks of West Virginia”
“See West Virginia and its state parks as they were in 1935, from the Green Brier Hotel at White Sulphur Springs to CCC men working on the Lost River Park. Also featured are Cacapon and Watoga state parks and the town of Berkley.
This film focuses on State Parks of West Virginia. In part 1, views of cities, factories, steel furnaces, hydroelectric plants, rivers, canals, and locks depict the State’s industries and waterways. It shows Green Brier Hotel at White Sulphur Springs and the town of Berkeley. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) men work in Lost River Park. Tourists ride horses, picnic at an outdoor table, and examine an old house. Children crippled by polio perform handicraft and sunbathe in Berkeley hospital. In part 2, visitors to Cacapon State Park ride bicycles and horses. It shows the forest, the artificial lake, picnickers, wild turkey, and deer. Visitors to Watoga State Park picnic, swim, and fish.”
Public domain film from the US Department of Interior, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
West Virginia… is a U.S. state located in the Appalachian region of the Southern United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the north, and Maryland to the northeast. West Virginia is the 41st largest by area and the 38th most populous of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston.
West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions and broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. The new state was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key Civil War border state. West Virginia was the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state and was one of two states formed during the American Civil War (the other being Nevada, which separated from Utah Territory).
The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the South. The northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio, with the West Virginia cities of Wheeling and Weirton just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, while Bluefield is less than 70 miles (110 km) from North Carolina. Huntington in the southwest is close to the states of Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Panhandle region are considered to be a part of the Washington metropolitan area, in between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in several geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. It is the only state that is entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission; the area is commonly defined as “Appalachia.”
The state is noted for its mountains and diverse topography, its historically significant logging and coal mining industries, and its political and labor history. It is one of the most densely karstic areas in the world, making it a choice area for recreational caving and scientific research. The karst lands contribute to much of the state’s cool trout waters. It is also known for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking and hunting…
