Today is a very different day for travel, mainly two lane divided rather than the twisty stuff we have been doing. A bit of a break but the hills are still there none the less.
New River Gorge Bridge
Fallout 76: this bridge is a landmark location. At one point I had a C.A.M.P directly underneath it. In the game it is not complete.
Quilt Fabric
Finally! On our way back to Summersville from the bridge I located a quilt shop a bit off the road and made my first purchase of the trip. I had located a second one in Summersville which we conveniently parked in front of without even having to look for it. Next weekend is the WV Quilt Festival in Summersville. Dang missed it by a week.
Summersville, WV
Not much more to say about Summersville except that is has a very nice quilt shop with a very friendly owner. In the little park across the street, a very nice lady was selling her home made baked goods. She explained the origins of the West Virginia pepperoni roll. We bought several from her. They are unique to WV and we have seen them everywhere. Now I need to go home and make my own. Yes I am still making my own bread.
Summersville is in the game FO76. I have a C.A.MP. very close to it and use it mainly for looting when I need materials for building etc. There is also a quest in Summersville.
Sutton, WV
Sutton was a transportation hub on the navigable Elk River. Railroads also served the town of Sutton, with the Sutton Branch connecting to the West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad at Flatwoods.
Due to its location on the Elk River, Sutton was embroiled in the American Civil War. On September 5, 1861, the town was occupied by 5,000 Union troops. On December 29, 1861, Confederate soldiers burned most of the downtown.
Sutton is one of those towns like Grafton that has seen better days. With its boarded up shops and derelict buildings it is a good model for post-apocalyptic FO 76. It DOES however have not one, but two, museums dedicated to the local monsters, Big Foot and the Flatwoods Monster.
Sutton and Flatwoods in real life are only 5 miles apart.
We sat on the bench outside the Bigfoot Museum and ate one of our pepperoni rolls… 😋
Sutton and Fallout 76: Sutton is a location that appears quite early in the game. The gamer is looking for someone named the Overseer. She can be found in her home town of Sutton. Her house is located up on the hill behind Sutton and is accessed either by a long driveway or straight up a long flight of cement stairs. I actually found a reasonable facsimile to the one in the game including the stairs.
Honestly, the developers of the game couldn’t have made up any better monsters than those that already appeared in West Virginia folklore long before the game existed: the Grafton Monster, the Mothman, Bigfoot (not in the game) the Flatwoods Monster, snallygasters and others.
One of my best C.A.M.P.s is located in Sutton at the bottom of the hill from the train station. There is no train station in the real world.
I still have more to write because we did a tour of the Alleghany insane asylum this afternoon but laundry, dinner, a walk and a zoom call with our oldest daughter took up most of the evening… stay tuned.
Trans-Alleghaney Insane Asylum, Weston WV
We took the 45 minute tour of the first floor of this institution. The state of mental health care before the advent of pharmaceuticals was appalling and downright scary. This asylum was fully funded by the state. A male had the right to drop off any female at this ‘hospital’ for any reason whatsoever and, without his consent for release (even if he died), she was forced to remain there.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, subsequently the Weston State Hospital, was a Kirkbride psychiatric hospital that was operated from 1864 until 1994 by the government of the U.S. state of West Virginia, in the city of Weston. Weston State Hospital got its name in 1913 which was used while patients occupied it, but was changed back to its originally commissioned, unused name, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, after being reopened as a tourist attraction.
Designed by Gothic Revival and Tudor Revival styles by Baltimore architect Richard Snowden Andrews, it was constructed from 1858 to 1881. Originally designed to hold 250 people, it became overcrowded in the 1950s with 2,400 patients. It was forcibly closed in 1994 due to changes in patient treatment. The hospital was bought by Joe Jordan in 2007, and is opened for tours and other events to raise money for its restoration. The hospital’s main building is claimed to be one of the largest hand-cut stone masonry buildings in the United States, and the second largest hand-cut sandstone building in the world, with the only bigger one being in the Moscow Kremlin. As Weston Hospital Main Building, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
The Asylum in F.O.76: this is Fort Defiance in the game. There are several quests and one event here (still dont have the key for the elevator on the 4th floor). I have a C.A.M.P. just northwest of here under the monorail towers. The game designers did a great job making it look like the real thing.
The bank robbery that funded the formation of West Virginia
On the morning of June 30, 1861, federal troops from the Seventh Ohio Infantry entered the town of Weston, Virginia (now West Virginia) and seized the approximately $30,000 in gold held in the town’s branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia for construction of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. A few years earlier, the Virginia legislature authorized the building of a mental institution in the town and deposited funds in a local bank to pay for its construction. Shortly after the Civil War broke out in the spring of 1861, the Virginia legislature halted construction on the building and demanded that the remaining deposited funds be returned to Richmond to aid in the state’s preparations for war. To prevent the funds from being used in support of the rebellion, Francis H. Pierpont, Governor of the Restored Government of Virginia, the unionist government of Virginia that remained loyal to the United States throughout the Civil War, informed Union General George B. McClellan of the situation. General McClellan then ordered the Seventh Ohio Infantry to march overnight to Weston to secure the funds. After seizing the gold, the federal troops sent it to Wheeling, where it helped fund the loyal government of the state.
We arrived in camp in time to do some badly needed laundry, had a lovely meal of salmon and our first corn on the cob of the season and a zoom call with our daughter, the one who introduced me to the game Fallout 76.
Louise and Brian McLeod Travel Blog 
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