| Fort Spring | |
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| — Unincorporated community — | |
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Fort Spring
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | West Virginia |
| County | Greenbrier |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
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Fort Spring is an unincorporated community in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA. It is situated along the Greenbrier River within the Greenbrier River Watershed. It was once a substantial portion of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway by way of the Gravel Girtie route from Hinton in Summers County, West Virginia to Clifton Forge in Virginia. The name comes from its main export; Mississippian limestone from Snowflake Quarry sent to Clifton Forge, Virginia as an industrial flux; hence the route was affectionately called, "The Gravel Girtie" after the Dick Tracy character. This route passes through the Alderson Federal Prison Camp and the Big Bend Tunnel in Talcott, Summers County, home of John Henry the legendary Steel-Driving Man.
Farming remains the main source of income within the community itself. It was once a depot for the great Turkey Drives. In her novel, "The Great Turkey Walk", Kathleen Karr depicts the movement of poultry from county to county[1] where poultry was walked from Union in Monroe County to the stockpens in much the same way it was done for centuries. Cattle, pigs, and other animals were also sent to Fort Spring to be shipped to the larger cities. There was a barn used to store the apple export of Monroe County alongside the main tracks, which is now the main street.
Fort Spring was originally called "Mann's Ferry" and the community's current name refers to the old settler fort that has been lost to history. Colonel John Stuart, who shipped Ice Age sloth bones (Megalonyx jeffersonii) to Thomas Jefferson, noted the presence of saltpetre caves in the area. The area is a combination of karst topography, riparian floodplain and ancient riverbeds with limestone (karst) outcropping mixing with farmlands and deciduous forest. The only available drinking water is by drilled wells or cistern or transportation. The majority of the caves in the area are small with the exception being that of the mouth of the Davis Spring. During the Cold War a modified cave system was transformed into a bomb shelter and bunker against the quarry.
In the absence of the railroad, Nonpoint Source Pollution (NPS) is a leading pollutant due to the combination of human and animal (agricultural) impacts. One large sinkhole is known as the source of a minor Typhoid epidemic in the mid-nineteenth century, due to confusing the water in the sinkhole with that of springwater.
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Fort Spring was prepared for war and sabotage during World War II. It was a small area suitable for attacks due to its close proximity to important cities and its lying between the towns of Alderson and Ronceverte. The railroad paid a citizen to patrol the train tracks at the Second Creek side of the town during the night. Nazi sympathizers and suspicious characters were treated gingerly. Men from the National Guard oversaw the potato fields on what is now the Miller Farm at the basin of Fort Spring. German POWs worked the crops and were known for trading all their cigarettes for one American cigarette. After the war, several of them stayed on in the area.
Residents of Fort Spring have fought bitterly over the spelling for over a hundred years. 'Fort Springs' refers to two other addresses nearby. Those who live within Fort Spring refuse to call it "Fort Springs," stating correctly that it could be a subdivision downstream or a housing development in Ronceverte. A similar, but humorous problem exists upriver in Marlinton, Pocahontas County, where is it often wrongly called Marlington. The library for New River Community and Technical College in Lewisburg deals with these problems by having flubbed employees recite out loud two poems, "No 'G' In Marlinton," and "No S in Fort Spring."
In tribute of "The Sage of Pocahontas," Andrew Price, Mike Williams created the following poem:
In the footsteps of the late Andrew Price long ago,
Who wrote, "There Ain't no G in Marlinton," you know,
I take up pen and pad just to say, that it is definitely so,
There is but one S in Fort Spring—or did you not know?
The late John Perry, "mayor" forever it has been said,
Lays up in his Mount Vernon[2] grave, as good as dead.
But continue to use that second s—oh! Such a dread,
He'll haunt you until you face your grave as dead...
There was but one Fort and one Spring, it is told,
And change the history—no one can ever be that bold.
It is Fort Spring and proudly so, no matter hot or cold,
And add the second S—do not be so carelessly bold!
Acme Limestone[3] knows it and so the River's Edge does too,
The Missionary Baptist[4] and the Grace Methodists[3] are also true,
Postmaster Dorsey[5] retired, knowing this was the thing to do:
Spell Fort Spring correctly and to this village, this district be true.