Cheat Mountain

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Cheat Mountain, located in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, is over fifty miles long from north to south and more than five miles wide. It is exceptionally high and rugged. Its summit is 4,848 feet above mean sea level, with countless other summits rising above 4,000 feet along its length. The mountain was once home to the largest red spruce forest south of Maine. But the timber industry grew rapidly towards the turn of the century and by 1905, the summit had been reached by loggers. By 1960, the mountain was virtually barren.

[edit] History

Cheat Mountain has a rich and often tumultuous history. One of the major events of the American Civil War was the Battle of Cheat Mountain, which took place September 12-15, 1861. In the early 1900's, Cheat was extrensively timbered by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company and their Cass operation, West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company. The timbering of Cheat has been chronicled in many books, including "Of Men and A Mighty Mountain," which details how difficult life was on the mountain for the mostly immigrant workers of the lumber operation.

[edit] Cheat Mountain Today

In 1974, Snowshoe Mountain ski resort opened on the southern tip of the mountain near Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. Cass Railroad, which opened in 1960, takes visitors up the side of Cheat Mountain to Bald Knob via the same route the logging railroad used in the 1900's. Contrary to popular belief, though, Cass Railroad does not take visitors to the summit of Cheat Mountain, but rather the summit of Back Allegheny Mountain. Back Allegheny runs north to south through Randolph County and Pocahontas County, West Virginia, and intersects Cheat Mountain at its southern end. This bulwark of mountains is known as the Shaver's Fork Mountain Complex. It derives its name from the Shaver's Fork of the Cheat River which originates from this area at more than 4,500 feet above sea level and runs north between the two mountains to join the Black Fork River in forming the Cheat River.

A large portion of the Cheat lies in the Monongahela National Forest of West Virginia.