New stargazing cabins are one part of a major lodging upgrade coming to Coopers Rock State Forest in Monongalia and Preston counties.
Updated on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 11:50 a.m.
New stargazing cabins are one part of a major lodging upgrade coming to Coopers Rock State Forest in Monongalia and Preston counties.
Speaking on Tuesday afternoon from the park’s overlook deck, Gov. Jim Justice and Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby announced several improvements coming to one of the state’s most enjoyed forests.
“This is yet another exciting day for West Virginia with the addition of these incredible upgrades,” Justice said. “Coopers Rock State Forest is a gem within our state park system, and as we continue to draw visitors from around the world, it’s important that we maintain its amazing condition and reputation.”
Justice said 25 new campsites, a pedestrian bridge and 20 A frame cabins are now in the works for Coopers Rock.
Springboarding off the popularity of stargazing and dark sky areas, Ruby said the first five A frames to be built will be the state’s first stargazing cabins.
“They’re perfectly positioned with skylights and telescopes inside to be one of the greatest places you can see stars on the east coast,” Ruby said.
The State Forest’s main overlook, which has been under repair, is expected to be re-opened by May 1, 2023.
Gov. Justice also announced that a new pedestrian bridge will be constructed to the main overlook. That project is expected to be completed by August 2024.
The project will cost about $10 million and is expected to take two years to fully complete.
Some of the names of places in Appalachia have a long history, dating back to the 1600s. The history and story behind a name can get lost over time – leading us to question how a place got its name.
One such place is Coopers Rock state forest, located outside of Morgantown. Who was Cooper? Was he a real person? Did he live there?
At the far end of the forest there is a giant rock overlook. It is the spot best known at Coopers Rock.
The rock is about the size of a large living room. Standing atop it, one can see for miles. It overlooks the Cheat River and basin, and in every direction are the Appalachian Mountains covered in lush green trees.
Jan Dzierzak, Coopers Rock State Park superintendent, describes what is to the left from the overlook.
“Not a lot of lights not a lot of houses, not a lot of stuff going on that direction,” he said.
To the right is more development.
“We’re looking at Morgantown,” Jan said. “You can see the Morgantown airport, the water tower, and the long straight line you can see the [West Virginia University] Coliseum.”
Credit Caitlin Tan
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Jan Dzierzak, Coopers Rock Park superintendent, at the park. He says the rock is named after a profession, not necessarily a person named ‘Cooper.’
Standing on the furthest corner of the rock one can see the lush forest below, with the Cheat River snaking its way through the valley. About 300,000 people come each year to see this view, and one of their main questions is, “Who is this man named Cooper?”
“Everyone thinks Coopers Rock is a rock named after someone named Cooper,” Jan said. “They say, ‘I want to see Cooper’s Rock.’”
It turns out he does not exist. There is no Cooper.
“It’s actually named after a profession – a cooper – someone who builds barrels,” he said.
Coopers often build barrels used for aging bourbon.
The legend is that a fugitive cooper lived in this forest near Coopers Rock in the early 1800s. He likely spent time on the overlook as the forest eventually became known as Coopers Rock.
“The legend states that there was an outlaw that lived in the forest and he would steal the lumber and would build barrels,” Jan said. “Back in that day there was a lot of commerce in the area — they were using timber to fuel the iron furnaces and early trade. So, he would make a living selling barrels while living here on the forest illegally.”
There is very little record on this outlaw. But it is not hard for Jan to imagine what he might have looked like.
“I always picture him as your typical woodsman running around the woods probably bearded, probably a bit dirty,” Jan said. “There’s a few caves in the park — I predict he was probably in there. Someone you don’t want to mess with, but also a good sense of humor — you have to have one to live out here and do what he did.”
Is there a name of a place in Appalachia that you’ve always been curious about? Let us know at Insideappalachia@wvpublic.org.
This story is a part of this week’s Inside Appalachia episode focusing on the beer and spirits industry and culture in Appalachia.
Last fall, Danielle Martin, a forest pathologist for the U.S. Forest Service in Morgantown, and her colleagues noticed something different about the oak trees in Seneca State Forest. The trees secreted an amber-colored sap, and bore cankers – which look like canker sores – underneath their bark.
“We saw a vertical crack with perhaps some weeping, a bleeding appearance – like an amber bleeding – and that’s when we’d remove the bark and look for cankers,” Martin said.
Martin worked with Matt Kasson, an assistant professor of forest pathology at West Virginia University, and his graduate students to diagnose those trees with diplodia corticola. Diplodia corticola is an aggressive disease that limits the ability of oak trees to access essential nutrients and water, ultimately killing them. It was first reported in Europe, and has since emerged in Florida, California, Massachusetts and Maine. This is the first time that it’s been found in oak trees in West Virginia.
While the timber industry is aware of the new disease, they’re not concerned just yet. Kasson says West Virginia residents should be concerned because as oak trees weaken, they are more likely to fall and hurt people – especially in recreational areas.
Credit Jesse Wright / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Matt Kasson, an assistant professor of forest pathology at WVU, examines an oak tree at Coopers Rock State Forest in Morgantown.
“Look at that tree! You can see that it’s dead. That tree is completely dead,” Kasson said, pointing at a tree near a playground at Coopers Rock State Forest in Morgantown. “That tree has been in a state of decline for a number of years, and it poses a great risk, especially to the playground area.”
Tree diseases aren’t new to West Virginia. In the early 1900s, chestnut blight wiped out billions of chestnut trees in the United States, including those in Appalachia. Hemlocks and ash trees are also battling illnesses. In fact, Martin says, these tree diseases coupled with mass logging may have helped diplodia get its start in southern West Virginia.
“The majority of the Appalachian forests were cut about 100 years ago, so all of our trees are about the same age,” she said. “So they’re all kind of equally susceptible in a way to these pathogens. If something affects them, it could potentially affect all of them.”
Fortunately, Martin isn’t concerned about diplodia wiping out oak trees on a large scale in the area. She does think the disease will weaken the trees as a whole, making them more vulnerable to stressors like drought or insect infestations or flooding that could serve as the final blow to the tree’s health. Kasson agreed.
“I think us detecting this diplodia canker on oak is only the beginning. I think with all this flooding that we’ve had this past summer, we will see a sharp rise in the amount of predisposition and subsequently in the rise of fungal infections in oaks and in other tree species in that part of the state,” he said.
The two will look into what is causing the outbreak in West Virginia and what could be used to cure it, in hopes that they can find an end to what seems to be the beginning of a new tree disease outbreak.
