Up and out early again today with lots to see and do. First up is a revisit the The Greenbrier Golf Resort just a few miles from our campground. We had spent 1 night at The Greenbriar about 20 years ago where we purchased our living room coffee table at the Arts Center.
The Greenbriar
Since 1778, visitors have traveled to this part of the state to “take the waters” of the area. Today, The Greenbrier is situated on 11,000 acres (4,500 ha) of land with 710 guest rooms, 20 restaurants and lounges, more than 55 indoor and outdoor activities and sports, and 36 retail shops.
The current Greenbrier was built in 1913 by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and was owned for much of its history by that company and its successors, Chessie System and CSX Corporation. Following years of heavy losses, CSX had the hotel file for bankruptcy protection in 2009. Justice Family Group, LLC, a company owned by coal baron and later Governor of West Virginia Jim Justice, subsequently bought the property and guaranteed all debts, resulting in dismissal of the bankruptcy protection. Justice promised to return the hotel to its former status as a five-star resort and to introduce “tasteful” gambling for guests to enjoy.
The last U.S. president to stay at The Greenbrier during a presidency was Dwight D. Eisenhower. A total of 26 presidents have stayed at the hotel.
One of the great vestiges of the Cold War is the Greenbrier bunker, a facility built to house all 535 members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack. The bunker was code named “Project Greek Island“. Greenbrier was chosen because of its location—relatively close and accessible to Washington, but far enough away to be safe from an atomic bomb—and because of its prior relationship with the United States government.
The Greenbrier bunker is buried 720 feet underground. It would not survive a direct nuclear strike, but is capable of weathering a blast 15-30 miles away and protecting its occupants from fallout. The two-level facility is 112,544 square feet, roughly the size of two football fields on top of one another.
Today it’s a great place for a tour.
The Greenbriar in Fallout 76
The Greenbriar in Fallout 76 is White Springs. The game is almost identical to the real thing except the real world location doesn’t have feral ghouls or robots wearing tuxedos. The game even has a bunker entrance on the 7th hole into a cavern that extends to a hillside exit near Summerstown ( which I have explored). The train station is on the property, a functioning Amtrak stop, but the building itself is now a Christmas Store. I was told that there was an event at the Greenbriar when the game was launched.
Lewisburg, WV
Lewisburg is a pretty little town, voted one of the best in the U.S. and couldn’t be more opposite to Grafton with its trendy little shops and live theater. It is featured in the video game Fallout 76 with quests for the gamers. There is not a lot else to say about it so I will just post some pictures.
The John Henry Legend and the Big Bend Tunnel, Talcott, WV
John Henry is an American folk hero. An African American, he is said to have worked as a “steel-driving man”—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel.
According to legend, John Henry’s prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam-powered rock drilling machine, a race that he won only to die in victory with hammer in hand as his heart gave out from stress. Various locations, including Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, Lewis Tunnel in Virginia, and Coosa Mountain Tunnel in Alabama, have been suggested as the site of the contest.
The contest involved John Henry as the hammer man working in partnership with a shaker, who would hold a chisel-like drill against mountain rock, while the hammer man struck a blow with a hammer. Then the shaker would begin rocking and rolling: wiggling and rotating the drill to optimize its bite. The steam drill machine could drill but it could not shake the chippings away, so its bit could not drill further and frequently broke down.
Big Bend Tunnel
Big Bend Tunnel is a decommissioned tunnel on the mainline of the CSX Corporation’s rail line through southern West Virginia west of Talcott, West Virginia.
Big Bend Tunnel is located near Talcott approximately 10 miles east of Hinton, West Virginia. Its construction was one of the largest projects undertaken by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) as it extended its railroad through southern West Virginia. When completed, it was the longest tunnel on the line.
“Big Bend” is a name for a section of the Greenbrier River where the river literally makes a big bend around Big Bend Mountain. The distance around this w-shaped bend is about a eight miles. Surveyors chose to avoid the bend by building the tunnel through the mountain.
John Henry and the Big Bend Tunnel
While the tunnel was being lined with brick, many workers claimed to have seen or heard the ghost of John Henry inside Big Bend Tunnel, and to this day rumors about the ghost continue to circulate. Early residents of Talcott were said to have seen and heard the ghost in and near the tunnel soon after its completion. By some accounts, the ring of Henry’s hammer striking steel could be heard from within. Others reported that apparitions of the steel-driver appeared just inside the eastern portal. The ghost was often reported to wield two hammers, swinging them alternately as if driving steel.
As late as 1883, the railroad was reported to have had difficulty recruiting local workers to line the tunnel with brick. Repairs stopped repeatedly after workers thought they heard the sound of the hammer or when sightings of Henry’s ghost were reported.
The Great Bend Tunnel was later opened alongside the Big Bend Tunnel. The tunnel is featured in the Fallout 76 video game and in other popular culture references. I have not yet been able to access Big Bend Tunnel in the game. I need a key.
Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine and Tour
Phillips-Sprague Mine, also known as the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, is a historic coal mine located at New River Park in Beckley, Raleigh County, West Virginia.
The mine opened about 1889 on what had been operated as a drift mine. Commercial development of the drift mine began in 1905 and the first coal was shipped on January 4, 1906. Mine operations ceased in 1953, and the property sold to the City of Beckley.
The Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine opened in 1962, as the first historic site wholly dedicated to educating the public about coal mining. It consists of 1,500 feet of restored passageways and entries with 3,000 feet of vintage track.
In addition to the Coal Mine Tour, their is the Coal Camp, which includes a restored coal camp house, miner’s shanty, church and school.
We took the underground mine tour led by a former Coal miner. He was able to provide real life experience of what it was like to work in a Coal Mine. We are beginning to appreciate the labor needed to develop this state… building tunnels and railroads, mine working, logging. Much of the labor was supplied by African Americans, living in company owned towns ( a form of slavery of its own) needing work after the Civil War.
Fallout 76: mines and caves of all sorts are a feature of the game particularly in a region called the Ash Heap.
Charleston, WV
Charleston is featured in the game along with the Golden dome of its capital building. We don’t normally like cities when we tour so this photo of the dome is my token acknowledgement both in real life and the game. I took this from the car on our way between Beckley and Point Pleasant. In the game, one of my camps us up the hill to my right with a view of the dome.
Tonight’s campsite is on the banks of the Kanawha River (ref. FO 76) and a tornado is being predicted in Ohio to the north east of us. We have already had one thunderstorm and the sky is threatening again. We are camped on a pond in Point Pleasant, Kanawha County. Guess where we are going tomorrow?
Louise and Brian McLeod Travel Blog 
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