West Virginia’s early days read like an adventure novel: full of grit, independence and the untamed spirit of the frontier. Drawn by the promise of affordable land and breathtaking mountain views, German, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh settlers packed up their dreams and headed west. What they found was a land as beautiful as it was challenging — and a chance to carve out a new life in the wild heart of Appalachia.
A unique people.
The early settlers of the Kanawha Valley were defined by their adventurous spirit and boundless curiosity. Drawn to the challenges and beauty of the wilderness, they quickly embraced the rhythms of frontier life, leaving behind the familiar comforts and customs of their former homes.
Living off the land with subsistence farming.
Most early pioneers were subsistence farmers who grew their own food and made everything needed to survive. They relied on their farms and nearby forests for food, building materials and clothing until the late 1800s.
Women were marksmen, too.
Frontier life wasn’t for the faint of heart, and pioneer women proved time and again that they were just as tough and talented as the men beside them. Skilled with guns, tomahawks and knives, they hunted game to feed their families and protect their homesteads from wild animals and other threats. Between tending gardens, raising children and navigating the challenges of wilderness living, these women became the true backbone of frontier life: resourceful, fearless, and fiercely independent.
Hand-me-downs include knowledge as well.
Early communities were built on knowledge and folk traditions passed down through generations of pioneers. At Fort New Salem, a living history museum in Salem, these skills are still demonstrated in a collection of rustic cabins. Visit Prickett’s Fort State Park, which served as a place of refuge during colonial times and commemorates late 18th-century life on the frontier.
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