More Belmont County & WVa
Last weekend I did some more exploring with Beth (from Grave Addiction), and another friend I met from beth’s message board. I’ve been searching for a grave yard that is near the eastern end of US 40, and Justin (from the GA message board) stated that he knew of one that fit the description that I had. He had also heard that they had closed off the road to the Circle Cemetery, and we wanted to check that out. Beth, Justin, and myself agreed to meet and do some exploring.
I got to the meeting site (eastern end of US 40) early, and snapped some pictures while waiting. After meeting up with Beth & Justin, we headed to Moore Cemetery (on the property of The Med). This cemetery is one of the coolest. It’s so stereotypical of the old abandoned cemetery in the woods.
After taking pictures there, we decided that we needed to verify the rumor about the Circle Cemetery. The rumor was false. We parked at the bottom of the hill (incase the road was closed, and walked up. We walked up far enough to see where the road goes around the cemetery and that it was not blocked off.
Being as no visit to Egypt Valley is complete without a stop at Salem Cemetery, we decided to make a quick stop. At first, I didn’t really want to stop. But I am very very glad I did. While Beth & Justin were inside the cemetery, I took a walk across the road where the church had stood. While looking down over the hill, I saw what appear to be a gob pile (waste material from mining coal). It also appeared to be some small chunks of coal. I kicked one of the larger ones and realized that it was sandstone. The top surface appeared to be charred, while the rest of it seemed to have clean edges like pieces had been chipped off over time. I have no way of proviing it, but it’s *possible* that the chunk of sandstone I found was part of the foundation of the church.
When leaving Salem Cemetery, we decided to hit the Indigent Cemetery on SR-331 across the road from Belmont Technical College. I was not aware, but this still appears to be an active cemetery, with the newest marker (a wooden cross) being from earlier in 2006. While we were here, I took them to see the covered bridge near by.
After that, Justin wanted to hit Union Cemetery to check look around for some relatives of his and Beth wanted to check out the English Baron’s grave. While in St. Clairsville, I took Justin & Beth to visit the cemetery where Thomas Carr is buried.
At this point, it was getting late, and we decided to run to Wheeling, to check out some sites. When we got to Wheeling, we first stopped at Mt. Wood Overlook (the concrete castle). We then crossed the street and checked out the Jewish Cemetery and Mt. Wood Cemetery (which are adjacent).
By this time, we had been out in the rain all day and decided to call it a day. We plan to go back to Union Cemetery, and hit some more sites in Wheeling when the weather allows.
I hope to have the HTML done for those new pictures this weekend.