This day was spent riding Hwy 52 alongside two rivers. The first half of the day was from Williamson to Huntington along the Tug Fork (they don’t say “river”) that separates West Virginia from Kentucky. The second half of the day was from Huntington to Manchester along the Ohio River, that along this stretch separates Ohio from Kentucky. Looking at a map would be best.
I could have spent a couple of days and posts on Williamson alone. It’s the county seat, has a population of 3,000 which is about a third of what it used to be, seems proud of its past and insecure about its future.
I stayed in the Mountaineer Hotel, which was stately and mostly empty. Lots of famous people have stayed in the hotel, and their names are on the wall outside the doors to the rooms. John Kennedy stayed here in 1960 when he was a senator campaigning for president. There’s a little shrine to his visit in the hotel lobby.
I got up early and walked outside to see how cold it was, and ended up walking around town for a couple of hours. Williamson is on the Tug Fork, which floods once in a while. After an especially bad flood in 1977, the Army Corps of Engineers built a flood wall to keep the river out of the town. The gates of the flood wall have been closed twice since the the wall was completed in 1984. Once as a precaution, and once it really saved the town. I was fascinated by the wall and its gates, so lots of pictures.
The town side of the wall has an earthen support along most of its length.
This is more of the earthen support of the flood wall off to the left. The taller building to the right is the back of the Mountaineer Hotel where Senator Kennedy and I stayed.
My morning walk took me across the Tug Fork and into Kentucky.
The Hatfields and McCoys are still an item.
Atypical church architecture
This is Virgil Johnson. As far as I could tell, Virgil and I were the only ones about town early Saturday morning. Virgil has lived his life in Williamson and remembers the floods. Now he works for the town and is one of the people responsible for closing the flood wall gates if the water gets too high. He’s a very personable fellow, but remembers he’s at work and continues on after some brief talk.
This saying hangs on the wall in the Lobby of the Mountaineer Hotel.
So glad your journey is going well, scooter apparently running fine now and letting you “focus” on getting those great pictures while building up a treasure chest of unforgettable memories.
I looked up Tug Fork on internet and this was one historical comment about the derivation of the name:
“The river is believed to have been named in 1756, during Maj. Andrew Lewis’s disastrous ‘‘Sandy Creek’’ expedition against the Shawnee Indians in southern Ohio. Near the headwaters, the group attempted to descend the Tug River to Ohio by using canoes for the trip, but they encountered tremendous rapids and lost their supplies. The men were forced to boil and eat their boot strings or ‘‘tugs’’ made of buffalo hides.”
Also looked this area up on topographical map – must have been a very cool/scenic ride with the river cutting through the valleys. Thanks.
funny thing, if I read your postings at work, I don’t get any photos – but when I go to the library internet I get photos. Occasionally I make a comment without seeing the photos, but from you narrative I can see what you are reporting about and wanted to compliment you that you do a really good job in describing the photos. Now that I’m at the library I see the photos from yesterday and today and really like this picture of the barn & silo along with the side-barn. As often happens – makes me wish I could go back a few decades to see what was happening here in it’s heyday, what kind of operation this was – small scale commercial agricultural, or just a really inventive farmer who enjoyed farming , added on to the compound (?), supplied the community (?). Interesting stuff.
Great photos. My dad and uncle grew up in South Williamson and New Camp, KY. As a child, we visited my grandfather in Williamson in the early 60’s. I have been back once, in 2011, since my grandfathers funeral in 1972. We stayed at the Mountaineer as well, and ate at the Moose and Elks clubs. My dad and uncle actually went to school in Williamson, they walked across a toll bridge, and their mom payed the toll monthly. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!