Eric is WVPB's News Director. He's a native of Kanawha County and graduated from Marshall University with a degree in journalism. He has written for newspapers and magazines throughout his career. He is also an author, writing both nonfiction and fiction, including a series of thriller novels set in locations around the world.
The view from the pilothouse of the sternwheeler Hobby III.
There was a time that life along the river revolved around riverboats. In the 19th century, the only way to get supplies or mail was the river. To keep the history of the river alive, a community of enthusiasts in West Virginia and Ohio maintain riverboats for their personal use.
The original riverboats were called “sternwheelers.” The stern is the back of the boat, so these riverboats had a paddlewheel that provided thrust to propel the boat up and down the river.
Eighty to ninety sternwheelers worked the Kanawha and Ohio rivers at their peak, according to Jack Fowler, the director of the Point Pleasant River Museum and Learning Center. Today, only a few still operate as work boats, but there are many more that private owners maintain for recreational use.
“These guys that have these sternwheelers just preserve those memories and what it used to be like,” he said. “It just keeps the spirit of the river alive, about what it was like back in the day.”
Credit Eric Douglas / WVPB
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Sternwheelers dock at Haddad Riverfront Park in Charleston, West Virginia.
One of those private owners is JD Pauley. His boat, the Hobby 3, was built as a pleasure boat.
“I’ve owned this boat for 22 years now and it’s just the people you meet, the things you do, the places you go. It’s I wouldn’t I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for a million dollar vessel.”
Tom Cook is the treasurer of the American Sternwheel Association. The group works to preserve and educate the public about sternwheel boats and has been in operation since 1976. Cook is worried about the future of sternwheelers, though, as membership in the group falls.
“It doesn’t seem like that the younger people are as interested, or maybe they just don’t have the resources to purchase,” he said. “A lot of the people that own boats now are getting older so there’s there’s several for sale right now.”
Ed Skaggs floats underwater on a recent scuba dive at Summersville Lake.
At any given time on weekends during the summer months, there are likely dozens of divers exploring the world beneath the waves at Summersville Lake in Nicholas County, West Virginia. Just watch for their bubbles on the surface.
It may come as a surprise that a lake known for fishing, camping and boating, is also a favorite destination for divers. They come to the lake to take classes, practice their diving skills and just have fun in the water.
The lake, originally built as a flood control project in 1966, and can reach depths of 300 feet, significantly deeper than recreational divers can go.
Bob Sharp, a dive instructor from Charleston, has been diving in the lake for more than 30 years. It provides him a place to dive when he can’t make it to the ocean.
“This is West Virginia’s ocean right here at Summersville lake,” he said.
Divers come from all over West Virginia and the region to dive in the lake. Scott Peterson is from north-central West Virginia.
Credit Eric Douglas / WVPB
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WVPB
Christmas trees are submerged in the lake for fish habitat.
“It’s the best freshwater diving in the area for visibility and water and a nice spot to do it here where you can get close to the water,” he said.
Ceclia Peterson likes to come to the lake as well.
“It’s peaceful. It’s pretty,” she said. “It’s nice just to come out here.”
The most common question divers hear as they exit the water is ‘What do you see down there?’ or ‘What is it like?’ Like everything else, the answer is different depending on who you ask.
Ed Skaggs, for example, really loves Long Point, an elbow in the lake that is only accessible by boat. Since there aren’t shallow areas nearby, the water remains clear.
“There’s so much cover for fish. You see a lot of fish, a lot of structure,” he said. “There are places where you can swim underneath fallen rocks. It’s almost like flying.”
Credit Eric Douglas / WVPB
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WVPB
Ed Skaggs and Eric Douglas underwater at Summersville Lake.
Best-selling author Sheila Redling, from Huntington, West Virginia, has written nine books under the pen name SG Redling. After losing her will to write, she is back on track and more books are on the way. In this interview she talks about the importance of protecting your ability to write and gives advice to writers.
Redling explained that after a fast start, writing several books, she burned out.
“I had taken a few years off writing; I’d gotten really burned out,” she said. “I had been writing when my mother was dying, and I wasn’t taking care of my writing process, which I think is something I wish somebody had warned me about that earlier.”
For Redling, the key was to find other ways to recharge her creativity. She branched out into art and even acting to find new inspiration.
“It’s just a lovely homecoming coming back to writing,” she said. “It is still my favorite thing to do in the world, which is both an important lesson for you to learn for yourself, but also for other writers to learn is don’t squander it. Don’t waste it.”
Redling’s first book, Flower Town is about a small mid-western town that is contaminated with a chemical spill. The residents are quarantined. Her other books include: The Dani Britton Series (“The Widow File” and “Redemption Key”) the Nahan series (“Ourselves” and “The Reaches”) along with stand-alone books like “Baggage,” “At Risk” and “Damocles.”
Asked to describe her favorite moment as a writer, she decided it was seeing her book in a library.
“My book was in a public library. I didn’t put it there. Anybody could come across it. Think about how many writers you came across as a kid just because you were at the library,” she said.
She explained that was the moment she felt like she had arrived as an author.
After a career working in the international intelligence community, realistic cold war spy novels have been Huntington author Michael Connick’s forte. His latest book, a crime novel titled “HPD” is still realistic, but it focuses on the Huntington Police Department in present day.
HPD follows the 12 year career of a Huntington police officer from when he first joined the force in 2006 through 2018. The main character, a patrolman, follows up on a murder investigation in his own time, in spite of what it costs him personally.
Credit Courtesy photo: Michael Connick
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“I like the city. I mean, it’s gone through some real struggles that are actually talked about in the book. You know, Ethan is a cop and he has to deal with the opioid crisis and so on. I like the city and I felt I wanted to make Huntington a character in the book itself,” Connick said about his choice to set a novel in Huntington.
Connick retired after a long career in the international intelligence community. The aphorism is to write what you know, so Connick’s first three books are spy novels set during the Cold War.
“The first book was ‘Trapped in a Hall of Mirrors.’ And then when I wrote my sequel to it, it turned out to be ‘Funhouse Mirrors’ because I was kind of a play on the theme. And then the last book, was called ‘Afghan Mirrors,’” Connick said.
‘Afghan Mirrors’ was set during the Soviet/Afghan war.
Connick explained that his next novel will likely be a cozy mystery similar to those written by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. He said he has already written a short story about the mythical town of Why, West Virginia and that will be the location.
Connick’s latest book ‘HPD’ has been out for a month and has gained notable popularity, he said.
“I’ve sold more books this past month than I have ever of any of my other books,” Connick said. “So it’s obviously touching a resonance somewhere and maybe everybody in Huntington, everybody in Cabell County and everybody in the tri-state area is buying my book, but a lot of people are buying my book.”
Craft breweries are popping up all over the region. In West Virginia alone, there are 27 breweries and three quarters of them opened in the last five years.
Sam Fonda, from Weathered Ground Brewery in Raleigh County, West Virginia, has almost 3,000 gallons of soon-to-be-beer fermenting and another 1,000 gallons aging in oak barrels nearby at any given time. That may sound like a lot, but his typical batch is 220 gallons, and that gives him the chance to experiment.
In addition to the basics of water, malted grains, hops and yeast, small craft brewers all over the region are experimenting with locally sourced ingredients to give their beers a unique flavor. Today, you can find West Virginia beers that contain traces of coffee, berries — even tree branches!
Credit Janet Kunicki / WVPB
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WVPB
Sam Fonda adding malt from North Carolina into a recent batch of beer.
Weathered Ground buys malted grains from the mountains of North Carolina, as well as hops, fruit, and flavorings from local farmers. Working with his neighbors is a source of pride for Sam.
“That’s why using local is so much fun. Because you can have this personal relationship with your suppliers. It’s almost always more expensive. Sometimes double really, but that’s just kind of the price you pay for doing what you want to do. So, we’re happy to pay a little more for the flavor we’re going to, as well as supporting local,” Fonda said.
One of Fonda’s suppliers is JR Ward, a hop farmer and full-time underground coal miner who lives just 20 miles or so down the road in Fairdale. JR loves the farm he has built, with 3,000 square feet of vegetable garden and a quarter acre of hops.
Credit Eric Douglas / WVPB
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JR Ward stands in front of his hop yard. Over the next few months, the hops will grow up the ropes behind him and will be ready for harvest.
“Years ago, I couldn’t tell you what a hop was, didn’t even know they looked like, did not like craft beer. Then what really made me going forward was a few years ago we had layoffs in the mines and the hard times and I never want to leave here because this is just a piece of heaven to me. And it’s beautiful land, I just started looking into stuff and hops caught my attention,” Ward said.
He currently supplies Weathered Ground with enough hops for 440 gallons of beer in two batches. They are: “Lost Ridge Pale Ale,” named for JR’s farm, and the second is a nod to JR’s other job. It’s called “Hop Farmin’ Miner.”
Starting next year, he plans to expand to five full acres of hop yard on his property and is working with a friend to plant an additional five acres on a nearby farm. That will make Lost Ridge Farms one of the largest hop growers in the state.
Besides hops, Weathered Ground sources local fruits and just about anything that tastes good according to Sam Fonda.
“We brewed an IPA a few weeks ago with birch branches, and then the flavor that comes from birch just unreal, so a lot of people don’t think about that kind of thing when they think about beer, but back in the day, that’s kind of what beer was, what materials do you have on hand,” Fonda said.
There is a growing movement throughout Appalachia for beverage makers to use locally sourced ingredients. It may cost more, but brewers like Sam Fonda believe in the process and so far, they’ve been successful using that business model.
This story is part of an Inside Appalachia episode exploring the alcohol culture and industry in Appalachia.
“Batter Up: Baseball in Charleston” features a total of 28 voices that were captured over the course of 25 interviews with each person sharing their memories of baseball games at the two parks.
Batter Up, Baseball in Charleston is an audio documentary based on the memories of the people who have attended, and played in, the games over the years.
The documentary is based on oral histories recorded during FestivALL 2018. Twenty eight people sat down for 25 interviews to talk about baseball at Watt Powell Park and the new Power Park. The text of a few of the oral history excerpts are included below.
Stories in the documentary include the very first bat boy at Watt Powell Park with the Charleston Senators, tales of the Charleston Charlies in the 1970s and the advent of the Toastman — where it came from and what it all means.
Batter Up: Baseball in Charleston looked at baseball over five different periods:
Early Baseball
The Charleston Charlies
The Wheelers and Alley Cats
The struggle for a new ballpark
The West Virginia Power
Early Baseball
Watt Powell Park scoreboard dedication – Gov. Okey Patteson, Mayor Carl Andrews, Charleston, West Virginia, 1949, Mrs. Dave Cleland Collection, West Virginia State Archives
Baseball really took off in 1949 when the city of Charleston built Watt Powell Park in Kanawha City. It was named for Walter “Watt” Powell, who managed the Charleston Senators in the 1930s and served on the city council. He convinced the city to build the park, but died shortly before it opened 70 years ago.
The opening game when the senators baseball came back to Charleston, and my dad and the whole family went to the opening game. Hoby Landreth hit a homerun and someone else hit one. Joe Biggs was the manager, Hobie Landrith was only 19 and a great prospect for the Cincinnati Reds. He did make the majors later on. But it was an exciting night. And it was a full house. I mean, we used to draw throngs of people here full stadiums all the time and maybe average 4000 or 5000 people a game. It was it was just great to see the color of the grass. To hear the horse hide meet the hickory and to see all the happenings of that, I fell in love. Harry Wallace
That Marlins team I was speaking of which was a triple A team for the Cardinals. That was like 61 I think and in 64 they won the World Series over the Yankees and several of the guys on that team had been on that Charleston team. Probably the most famous for not only playing but broadcasting was Tim McCarver he was like 19 years old and the catcher for Charleston and he ended up with the Cardinals long for major league career and announcing career and there was a pitcher named Ray Washburn, which was one of their top pitchers for Cardinals for years. And they had a couple infielders named Dal Maxvill and Julián Javier who played for years with the Cardinals. They were all on that Charleston team. Jeff Dent
The Marlins only lasted one year. The owners moved them back to Miami. In 1962, Charleston fielded a new team known as the Charleston Indians. They played for three seasons until Charleston was left without a baseball team in 1964.
The Charleston Charlies
After nearly a decade without a baseball team, baseball returned to Charleston, West Virginia in 1971. The Charleston Charlies were a Triple A affiliate of several teams, but started out with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I spent the year getting an autographed baseball of the Charleston Charlie's team — Bruce Kison, Richie Zisk, Charlie Howard, Renny Stinnett. There's a lot of players on here that played up and down in the major leagues; Gary Kolb. This is all from the 1971 year, yeah, you can see the different color of pens used. May 24 1971, Charleston Charlies versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. You got Hoylman Huffman advertising on it, official scorecard $0.25 cents. And you got the regular programs. There's all kinds of they're interesting to look at from regular season. There's all kinds of ads in there. And there's actually a couple businesses that are still in business, you know, but most of them are long gone. Terry Hess
Dave Parker was playing with the Charlies and they took someone up. And it might have been Al Oliver. I don't know. I don't remember that. But they took somebody big leagues and he got mad and went home. And so when the big shots in Pittsburgh called him and told him to get back down there he said he wasn’t coming. If he played any more ball he was going to play in the big leagues. They said, "Alright. We'll take ya," and he never came back. He played 15 maybe 18 years. Cal Bailey
The Wheelers and Alley Cats
Next-to-last Charleston Alley Cats baseball game at Watt Powell Park, Photograph by Summers, Charleston, West Virginia, August 2003, Dan Summers Collection, West Virginia State Archives
The Charleston Charlies moved to Maine following the 1983 season. After again going without baseball for three years, a new team arrived in Charleston in 1987. Named for the historic riverboats that plied the rivers, the Wheelers were a Single A team. In 1995, the team changed its name to the Alley Cats and continued playing in Watt Powell Park until 2004.
The 90 team, and remember, Dan Wilson was a catcher and probably the most highly touted player, one of the first games he threw someone out at second from his knees. And I said, this guy might work out okay. The 90 season was a lot of fun although I believe that was also the first season of toast man. So not everything great happens in the same year. Phil Kabler
Speaking of the Toastman, he explained the origin story.
So somebody said you are toast. I thought, that’ll cheer because it’s, "You. Are. Toast." And so we just started saying it. And I made a little signs so people would join in. And that was 1991. And by 1992, we were doing it all the time and that's what 1992 is when we're heading back to the playoffs again. In '91 we made the playoffs, '90 we won the championship, swept through the championship started counting down the outs at nine more outs for every game that we had a league we started doing nine more outs all the way down to one. And at one point, the hitting coach from the other team asked the Bat Boy Jason Caufield to come over and get a piece of toast. So I actually handed him around the corner and then went back to my business. Later I said, "What was that all about?" Well, he took it and he threw it in the lap of some guy who had been struggling and said, “Do you want to keep hearing about this. Or are you going to work on your swing?” Rod Blackstone
The Fight for the New Park and Power Park
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Watt Powell Park during the Alley Cats period.
In 2003, after more than five decades of baseball, Watt Powell Park was to close its doors for good. The owners of the team wanted to build a new ballpark in Charleston. But not everyone felt the same way. Many had fond memories from the last season and last night at Watt Powell. Others dealt with the fight over the new park.
So I was, I guess, kind of the leader of a vocal group that was advocating for keeping the park where it is. Now, in hindsight, I still in my heart believe that with less money that the old park could have been rehabbed and it could have become a kind of interesting mix of history and new updated facility, you know. But given that, I'm really glad that the new park ended up where it is, you know, in midtown. Because there were some discussions about other locations that would have put it further west. I just can't imagine myself going to ball games driving from Charleston out there to go to a ball game. So I'm glad it ended up where it is, and it is a nice facility. Russ Young
When it came time to play the first game in the new park, some minds were changed.
We were totally against closing down the ballpark. Totally, totally, totally against it until I stepped in to Power Park for the first time. In less than 30 seconds I went, “I was wrong. This is awesome.” You know, things change, you know I missed the nostalgia of Watt Powell of course, but there are so many more pluses now because of Power Park. Danny Boyd
In 2005, safely at home in the new ballpark, the team changed its name to the West Virginia Power. They hoped to represent the entire state, not just the city of Charleston.
For many fans, baseball is the basis for lifelong memories, remembering time with family or friends, special moments watching the game.
Baseball is about the players and the friends you make. I just love the game, the way it's played. I love batting, I love fielding and I love everything about the game. I would rather watch it live than I would on TV because you get the atmosphere of the ballpark and everything. Gene Barker
Batter Up, Baseball in Charleston includes 25 interviews with 28 different people. They took time out of their own schedules to record their interviews. They are (listed in the order the interviews took place):
Alan Fleishman
Terry Haas
Jim Strawn
Phil Kabler
Rod Blackstone
Danny Boyd
Terry O’Fiesh
Mike Shock Jr.
Charles Morris
Russ Young
Danny Jones
Charles Houck
Jeff Dent
Jim Berner
Cal Bailey
Mike Shock Sr.
Robin and Jason Black
Lyle Sattes
Harry A Wallace III
Jim Workman
Gary Kolb/Lisa Hughes
Gene Barker and Karl Priest
Dick Noel
Andy Richardson
Jason Caufield
Each of these complete recordings are housed at the West Virginia Archives and History Library, West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History for public access, along with the other oral histories recorded as part of FestivALL. This project was made possible with support from FestivALL, a city becomes a work of art; The West Virginia Archives and History Library, West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History; Ray, Winton and Kelley PLLC; and West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Organ music courtesy of Matt Jackfert. Baseball crowd sounds were recorded at Power Park in Charleston, West Virginia. Roxy Todd edited the script and Patrick Stephens mixed the sound.
