Transportation History in West Virginia

Model T’s and Model Roads: The Bumpy Road into the Modern Era Along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike (2001) is volume four of a seven CD series of audio history CDs about the history of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in West Virginia. Early travel in the United States was difficult because of lack of roads and infrastructure. Model T’s includes old timers and historians talking about stories of early road travel including the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. Old-time music and the sounds of horses and carriages really make you feel as if you have traveled back in time in West Virginia.

The Good Roads Movement

Mud in the spring and fall, snow in the winter and dust during the summer made many roads nearly nonfunctional. The Good Roads Movement between 1880 and 1916 was led by bicyclists eager to travel the country. At the same time automobiles were becoming more affordable and abundant on the Turnpike.

Early Transportation History

Basic early road construction is also discussed from knapping rocks to concrete to asphalt. The early roads of West Virginia, including the Turnpike, were often built by prisoners, recent immigrants, and workers for the Works Progress Administration. Particularly effective are the quotes from the old newspaper the Randolph Enterprise that make mention of the early roads. Early automobiles were sometimes greeted with frustration and fear along the Turnpike as locals learned to adjust to these new and noisy machines. Ernest logistics

Valley Railroad

The narrow gauge Valley Railroad carried logs for Wilson Lumber as well as passengers and met up with the Western Maryland Railroad. Towns like Huttonsville and Mill Creek would have at one time been on the line of this railroad. Coalton and Mabie are discussed as being products of a large coal seam on both sides of Roaring Creek. Italian immigrants came into these towns to help work on the railroad and in the mines.

The Great Depression, the New Deal, the Homestead in Randolph County, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dailey, Tygarts Valley, Frank, Durbin, and other regions, are mentioned and talked about on the audio history CD Model T’s and Model Roads.

Model T’s and Model Roads includes the voices of Jacob Currence, Don Teter, William Tolin, Ann Jackson Kingsolver, Emory Kemp, Mason Hart, Sidney Jackson, Buckingham Line Men, Mary Smith, Coach Bill Weber, Leda Bell Cox, Helen Stewart Wilfong, Dr. Eugene Hutton, Sophronia Brownfield, Velma Sutton, Jessie Powell, Raymond Wilfong, Nancy Kittle, Michael Kline, Fitch Plyler, Lillian Phillips, Ellen Flint Dolly, Squire Bosworth Kittle, Edna Wilfong, William P. McNeel, Jane Price Sharp, Mike Smith, and Jane Birdsong.

Model T’s includes the following folks playing music: Boyd Phillips, Michael Kline, Bruce Green, Jim Taylor, Don Pedi, Sheila Kay Adams, Carl Jones, Gerry Milnes, John Gallagher, Virginia Kisamore, Bruce Betler, Jimmy Triplett, George Davis, Scott Prouty, Bill Cox, Cliff Hobbs, Peter Baxter, Mary Caraher, Les Caraher, Carrie Nobel Kline, Phil Wiggins, Donna Long, Jimmy Daniel, Helene Criscio, and Doug Van Gundy.