|
2 DAY TOUR: Available May - September
Day One: Start your adventure into heritage with a trip to Arthurdale, the nation’s first New Deal Homestead Community. Founded in 1934 by Eleanor Roosevelt, Arthurdale gave destitute coal miners and their families a chance at a new life. Today, visitors tour the New Deal Homestead museum, a blacksmith’s shop, an old-time Esso Station, and the historic Center Hall.
We arrive back in Fairmont to have lunch at the Poky Dot, Cracker Barrel or Grand China Buffet.
Then, it’s onward to Pricketts Fort State Park. A “must see” for history buffs is Pricketts Fort State Park, a day-use historical and recreational park, located just north of Fairmont, West Virginia, two miles off Interstate 79 at Exit 139. The original fort was built at the confluence of Pricketts Creek and the Monongahela River in 1774, and provided a place of refuge from Indian attack for early settlers to the area. Now a state park, the site also includes the Job Prickett House, built in 1859 and listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Today’s Fort still speaks eloquently of that life and time. A dozen or more special events are conducted annually.
Dinner at one of the restaurants mentioned above. Lodging at one of our fine motel chains in Fairmont where you will have free baggage handling, a nice welcome reception, and one free room for the operator and one free room for the bus driver (based on 20 paid rooms).
Add on: If this tour is on a Saturday, we can travel in the evening to Sagebrush Round-Up Country Music Show at Bunner Ridge. Or, depending on the date of the tour, we could catch a special musical performance at either Fairmont State University or at the outdoor amphitheater at Pricketts Fort State Park.
Day two: Start your day with a brief tour of the Marion County Historical Society Museum located in historic downtown Fairmont, then travel 10 miles to Mannington to tour the Round Barn Museum. We’ll swing by the Historic 1853 Barrackville Covered Bridge along the way.
Your sojourn through time continues at the boyhood home of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at WVU Jackson’s Mill Historic Area where you will be introduced to early Appalachian frontier life. You will enjoy a delicious country lunch before you begin your tour.
The centerpiece is the Jackson’s Mill, where young Jackson worked as a boy. While the Old Mill is now a museum, there is an operating gristmill in the historic area, along with a blacksmith’s shop, a pair of hand-hewn log cabins, and barn. The Historic Area is part of the 523-acre WVU Jackson’s Mill Center for Lifelong Learning.
End the day with a twist and a visit to a lovely winery located within 20 minutes of Jackson’s Mill. Lambert’s Vintage Wines. Located in Historic Weston, the winery stands as a diminutive Gothic-looking structure on a hillside surrounded by a vineyard.
The winery is constructed from hand-cut stones gathered from various parts of West Virginia. Some weigh as much as 3,000 pounds.
A comfortably furnished tasting room welcomes visitors as they enter. A 3-inch thick bar top, cut in the 1950’s in Canada, is set up in one corner. Behind the bar, a mantle and mirror tops the sink. A fireplace and shelves containing West Virginia pottery that is for sale completes the room. Behind the tasting room is a racking room, storage area and a cooling room.
Following the tour, we travel back to Fairmont for dinner and a peaceful night’s sleep before leaving the following morning for our trip home.
|
