September 10, 2015

Lost River Sinks


I've been going to West Virginia all my life. After all, it is the first state to the west of Virginia.  When I was a child, we'd visit various state parks in the mountains of West Virginia. One of them was Lost River State Park and among the home movies that my dad took was a scene showing the place where the river became "lost." There was a sign there that said "Lost River Sinks" and I looked for it about 10 years ago and didn't find it. However, I recently learned from a post on Facebook that the current sign says "Lost and Found." (Thank you, Friends of Lost River State Park.) With this bit of information, I was able to find the exact location on Historical Marker Database.

Here the Lost River disappears under Sandy Ridge. Two miles away on the other side of the mountain the stream is “found” again as the headwaters of the Cacapon River. This stream has the Indian name for “Medicine Waters.”
This spot is along the "old" route 55 and at this point you can see the new superhighway overhead, WV 55 which is also US 48. The new road is part of West Virginia's Corridor H, and to further confuse motorists, signs indicate it is the "Robert C. Byrd Appalachian Highway System." Senator Byrd served for many years and had enough influence in the U.S. government to get this multi-million dollar highway funded. Although some called it a "road to nowhere," it is a beautiful and impressive road. And it does go somewhere, of course, although the places it goes so far are not well known outside of West Virginia. 
Corridor H as seen from the Marker

Corridor H Seen from a Parking Spot Closer to Baker

11 comments:

  1. Oddly enough, Corridor H works!

    Lovely countryside.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful photos and interesting history about the river.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is fun stuff to learn, and your illustrations are excellent.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely post. Love reading about such curiosities along the road.

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very interesting. I need you to be my tour guide when I go to West Virginia or even to Virginia

    ReplyDelete
  6. We have a bridge here that is officially called The Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway, but no-one would know what you were talking about if you used that name. It is simply 'the Skyway' or 'Burlington Skyway'. Love the Lost River Sinks story.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Odd and fascinating. Love the design of the sign.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That is fascinating that you found what you were looking for by using Facebook. Great pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love going to lose river. I hate that stupid highway they built. It takes away from the beauty.

    ReplyDelete

The View from Squirrel Ridge features thousands of views of the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding area. I post frequently so please visit often.

Your comments are appreciated. If you are responding to a post older than a few days, your comment will be held until we have a chance to approve it. Thanks for your patience!

Sorry, anonymous comments cannot be accepted because of the large number of spam comments that come in that way. Also, links that are ads will be deleted.