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Canaan Valley
The Blackwater River within Canaan Valley, West Virginia
Designation	U.S. National Natural Landmark
Location	Tucker County, West Virginia
Nearest City	Davis, West Virginia
Coordinates	39°07.600′N″79, 22.678°W′″{{{8}}}
Area	About 25,000 acres About 10.1 ha
Date of Establishment	December, 1974
Owner(s)	Federal, State, Private

Canaan Valley, is an oval shaped, bowl-like valley in northeastern Tucker County, West Virginia, USA, containing extensive wetlands and the headwaters of the Blackwater River, which spills out of the valley at Blackwater Falls. It is a partially undeveloped and well-known scenic attraction and tourist draw, associated with the Canaan Valley Resort State Park and the Blackwater Falls State Park.

Canaan Valley was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974.[1] The National Park Service citation indicates that the Valley is "a splendid 'museum' of Pleistocene habitats ... contain[ing] ... an aggregation of these habitats seldom found in the eastern United States. It is unique as a northern boreal relict community at this latitude by virtue of its size, elevation and diversity." Since 1994, almost 16,000 acres (65 km²) of the Valley have become the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's 500th.[2].

The local pronunciation of "Canaan" is Kuh-NANE', rather than the conventional KAY'-Nin for the Biblical region from which the area takes it's name.

Contents 1 Geography 2 Climate and meteorology 3 History 4 Flora and fauna 5 Tourism and recreation 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

The Valley, nestled among the higher ranges of the Allegheny Mountains, is about 13 miles long and 3 - 5 miles wide. It is defined by Canaan Mountain to the west and Cabin Mountain to the east. The Falls represent part of a water gap through which the Blackwater River exits the valley between Brown and Canaan Mountains before cascading through Blackwater Canyon. The average valley elevation is 3,200 feet above sea level, making it the highest valley of its size east of the Mississippi River. The surrounding mountains extend upward an additional 1000+ feet.

Because of its relatively high elevation, Canaan Valley has a climate more typical to Canada. The area has a unique, almost tundra-like, appearance.

Summers are cool and pleasant with temperatures usually topping out in the low 70s °F, with nighttime lows in the 50s °F, although temperatures below freezing have been recorded in every month of the year. Winters are typically cold and snowy. Canaan Valley has a unique geographic position which allows it to receive lake effect snow regularly during the winter. Northwest winds pick up moisture from the Great Lakes and usually deposit that moisture as snow within 50 miles of the lakes, essentially "snowing themselves out". However, once this air reaches the mountains around Canaan Valley it is forced to rise. This wrings additional moisture out from the air, causing snow (Orographic lift). Geographically, the Valley is also many times near the southwestern extreme of Nor'easters, often getting significant snowfall from such storms. Annual snowfall averages 160 inches (4.1 m) with particularly snowy winters approaching 200 inches (5.1 m), most of which falls from October to April.

The "High Allegheny" region (what is now east-central West Virginia), including Canaan Valley, was bypassed by development for many decades as large-scale settlement occurred to its north, south and west while the region itself remained relatively wild. Before the intervention of humans, the Canaan Valley area was covered by an exceptionally robust climax red spruce forest, intermixed with balsam fir and hardwoods.

In about 1843, three elk were killed in Canaan Valley by members of the Flanagan and Carr families, local settlers who habitually hunted there. These were likely the last elk found wild in the region that later became West Virginia.^[1]

Impenetrable understories of rhododendron long made passage through the Valley itself almost impossible until the advent of logging, which began after 1916. The productivity of the timber stands in the Valley was twice that of similar stands within the state. Maurice Brooks described the ensuing environmental damage in his classic book on Appalachian natural history:

Canaan Valley had a tragic history, and its comeback has been a slow one. A hundred years ago valley and surrounding ridges were covered by red spruce forest of a density that is hard to imagine today. Under such a forest the sun never reached to ground level, humus accumulated through the ages, and fire was not a threat. The lumbermen came, ultimately, and if total and permanent destruction of the entire area had been an aim it could scarcely have been more fully realized. An official of the company boasted that in 100,000 acres they had not left one stick of timber that would make a two-by-four. Log yields were fantastic; some acres on the valley floor scaled 80,000 to 100,000 board feet of lumber…. With all cover removed, organic material at ground level began to dry out; soon it was high-grade fuel, and the inevitable fires got started. There followed such a ground fire as this state has never seen before or since. For months this humus layer smoldered, and neither rains nor snows could stop the fire’s slow advance. The village of Davis was saved by a series of deep trenches around it, these kept filled with water carried from the Blackwater River. When the destruction was complete, all vegetable matter that wasn’t soaked had burned…. Bare rocks remained, and thin mineral soil, this often several feet lower than ground level in the original forest. Canaan and environs had become a desert. I have often wondered if the Pittsburgh company responsible for this has been proud of its job, and if it has enjoyed the resultant wealth. ^[2]

In the late 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps undertook as one of its projects the reforestation of Canaan Mountain. In areas where there was no soil at all to work with, trucks were run from the Valley continuously bringing dark muck soil to the mountaintop. Spruce seedlings were packed in, each requiring a bushel or two of soil and by the 1940s a new spruce forest had been established on the slopes overlooking the Valley.^[3]

In 1943 and '44, as part of the West Virginia Maneuver Area, the U.S. Army used the Canaan Valley area as a practice artillery and mortar range and maneuver area before troops were sent to European Theater of Operations to fight in World War II.

In the early 1970s, the Canaan Valley Resort State Park was created at the southern tip of the Valley in an attempt to develop a ski industry in the state. (The ski slopes occupy the Valley side of Bald Knob of Cabin Mountain.)

The Valley was designated a National Natural Landmark in December 1974.

In 1994, about 86 acres of the Valley were purchased in by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's 500th. Another 12,000 acres (48 km²) were added to the Refuge in 2002 and, with other additions, the present Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge is 15, 245 acres (65 km²) in extent.

Canaan Valley shares much of the same plant and animal life as the rest of the state. Of particular interest are large groups of deer which can be viewed from the main roads. The deer have become so conditioned to human presence that they are no longer frightened; feeding and interacting with the deer is strongly discouraged.

Seen far less frequently are black bears, bobcats, coyotes, and red foxes. Canaan Valley and the surrounding West Virginia highlands provide some of the most southern pockets of snowshoe hare habitat. Other animals include beavers, raccoons, opposums, grey and red squirrels, red-tailed hawks, and the occasional peregrine falcon and bald eagle. Smallmouth bass and various sunfish are found in the upper Blackwater River. Brook trout are also found some of the cold, clean streams of the area.

The Valley's unique climatic and natural features attract a steady flow of outdoor recreationalists. In addition to two state parks and one wildlife refuge, the valley is home to two Alpine ski resorts, Canaan Valley Ski Resort and Timberline Four Seasons Resort and one Nordic ski area, White Grass Touring Center. Camping, hiking, fishing, rock climbing, cross-country and downhill skiing, leaf-peeping, and wildlife viewing are popular outdoor activities.

1. ^ Maxwell, Hu (1898). The History of Randolph County, West Virginia, From its Earliest Settlement to the Present, The Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va. (Reprinted, McClain Printing Company, Parsons, W.Va., 1961), 300. 
2. ^ Brooks, Maurice (1965), The Appalachians (Series: The Naturalist's America), Illustrated by Lois Darling and Lo Brooks, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, pp 127-128.
3. ^ Brooks, Op. cit., pg 129.

See also:

• Kennedy, Philip Pendleton, The Blackwater Chronicle, A Narrative of an Expedition into the Land of Canaan in Randolph County, Virginia, Redfield, New York, 1853.
• Strother, David Hunter, The Virginia Canaan, Harper's Magazine, 8:18-36, 1855.
• Fortney, Ronald H., “Canaan Valley – An Area of Special Interest within the Upland Forest Region”, Chapter 4 in: Upland Forests of West Virginia, Stephen L. Stephenson, editor; Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Printing Company, 1993.
• Preble, Jack, Land of Canaan, Plain Tales from the Mountains of West Virginia, Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Printing Company, 1st ed., 1960; 2nd ed., 1965, 3rd ed., 1971.

• List of National Natural Landmarks

• Monongahela National Forest map of Canaan Valley Area