Gaudineer Knob

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Coordinates: 38°36′55″N 79°50′39″W / 38.61528°N 79.84417°W

Gaudineer Knob
Summit
View from Gaudineer Knob
Country	United States
State	West Virginia
Counties	Pocahontas, Randolph

Part of	Shavers Mountain
Range	Allegheny Mountains

Elevation	4,432 ft (1,350.9 m) ^[1]
Prominence	720 ft (219.5 m) ^[2]
Coordinates	38°36′55″N 79°50′39″W / 38.61528°N 79.84417°W / 38.61528; -79.84417

Management	Monongahela National Forest
Owner	USDA Forest Service

Easiest access	drive-up via FR 27A

Topo map	USGS Durbin

Nearest city	Durbin, West Virginia

Location of Gaudineer Knob in West Virginia
Website: Gaudineer Scenic Area

Gaudineer Knob is a mountain summit on the Randolph/Pocahontas County line in eastern West Virginia, USA. It is the highest elevation (4,432 ft/1,351 m) of Shavers Mountain, a ridge of the Alleghenies, and is located about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) east of the town of Cheat Bridge. The Gaudineer Knob Lookout Tower, an important US Forest Service (USFS) fire tower, formerly occupied the crown of the knob.

History

The knob had been a prominent, but unnamed, peak in a vast wilderness when in the late 1930s it was named in memory of Donald Gaudineer, one of the USFS’s early rangers in the Monongahela National Forest (MNF). As a young forester, Gaudineer had been assigned to the Southern District of the recently established MNF. His headquarters at that time occupied the former Craig Lumber Company office at Thornwood. During his years as ranger for the Greenbrier District, Gaudineer oversaw reforestation projects, the building of roads to enhance wildfire protection, the erection of fire towers in his district, and various other routine forest management activities. In the mid-1930s Gaudineer was transferred to the Cheat Ranger District, at Parsons, and on April 27, 1936, he was killed while attempting to rescue his children from a house fire. The USFS selected the scenic peak east of Cheat Bridge (in his former ranger district) as a fitting memorial.^[3]

Gaudineer Knob Lookout Tower

Only the concrete footers remain from the fire tower that from 1936 through 1950 surveyed the forest landscape surrounding Gaudineer Knob.

Gaudineer Scenic Area

Main article: Gaudineer Scenic Area

The 140-acre (57 ha) Gaudineer Scenic Area is situated immediately north of Gaudineer Knob at about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) elevation. It was established in 1964 and was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1974 owing to a 50-acre (20 ha) virgin red spruce stand that was spared the lumberman’s saw when the surrounding countryside was clear-cut in the early 20th Century.

References

↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Gaudineer Knob
↑ "West Virginia Summits". PeakList.org. Archived from the original on 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
↑ Carvell, Kenneth A. (September 1999). "Gaudineer Knob and Its Namesake". Wonderful West Virginia magazine (West Virginia Division of Natural Resources) 63 (11). Retrieved 2008-04-21.

v t e Monongahela National Forest

National Recreation Areas	Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area

Wilderness areas	Big Draft Wilderness Cranberry Wilderness Dolly Sods Wilderness Laurel Fork North Wilderness Laurel Fork South Wilderness Otter Creek Wilderness Roaring Plains West Wilderness Spice Run Wilderness

Mountains and summits	Allegheny Front Allegheny Mountain Back Allegheny Mountain Backbone Mountain Barton Knob Bickle Knob Champe Rocks Cheat Mountain Gaudineer Knob Mount Porte Crayon North Fork Mountain River Knobs Seneca Rocks Shavers Mountain Spruce Knob Spruce Mountain

Rivers and creeks	Black Fork Blackwater River Cheat River Cranberry River Dry Fork Elk River Gauley River Glady Fork Greenbrier River Laurel Fork Seneca Creek South Branch Potomac River Shavers Fork Tygart Valley River Williams River

Canyons and valleys	Blackwater Canyon Canaan Valley Germany Valley Smoke Hole Canyon

Lakes and bogs	Lake Sherwood Spruce Knob Lake Summit Lake Cranberry Glades

Observation towers	Bickle Knob Olson Tower

Other features	Camp Allegheny Bear Rocks Preserve Cheat Summit Fort Fernow Experimental Forest Gaudineer Scenic Area Highland Scenic Highway Sinks of Gandy

US Forest Service

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