Garden Ground Mountain

From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia

In southern Fayette County near the Raleigh County border, Garden Ground Mountain, or Garden Grounds Mountain, forms part of the western wall of the New River Gorge. Its highest elevations rise above 2,800 feet along a crescent of peaks roughly a quarter mile west of the gorge. The mountain also lends its name to the region of forested ridges and tablelands north and west, which are locally known as "the Garden Grounds."

In 2009 the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced that it had entered into an agreement to purchase more than 10,000 acres on or near the mountain for the location of a high-adventure National Scouting Center similar to three others it operates in Florida, Minnesota, and New Mexico. The site has also been proposed as a possible permanent location for the National Scout Jamboree. The jamboree, held every four years, attracts nearly 30,000 Scouts from around the U.S. and 12,000 staff and volunteers.

The National Park Service also owns some 55,000 acres on the mountain as part of the New River Gorge National River (NRGNR). The service was particularly inclined to encourage the BSA development, according to Don Striker, superintendent for the national river, as it was found compatible with the preservation of the gorge, one of the chief missions of the national park service in southern West Virginia. "The center is highly compatable with our mission to emphasize outdoor recreation and the preservation of the environment in the gorge," Striker said in an interview with West Virginia Explorer in July 2009.

Donnelly claimed that when the C&O Railroad was being built through the gorge in 1871-72, laborers would typically shanty along the banks of the river and in spring would clear and garden in the levels atop the mountain. Before the Civil War, Donnelly said, Ben Taylor, a cousin of U.S. President Zachary Taylor, had settled on the mountain and opened a hat factory and weaving shop there.