The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-08-27
FROM WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA, TO PARKERSBURG,
WEST VIRGINIA, ON THE NORTHWESTERN TURNPIKE

inside the edge of Maryland for about
nine miles.
Commissioned for Senator Cor
man, of Maryland-is chiefly known
) for its tannery.
If you have seen the Potomac below
! Washington you know that it is a ma
jestic stream. 1t is part of my daily
routine to cross one of the bridges
over the Potomac at Washington and
I could not help thinking of the long,
high and stately Key Bridge as I
looked back at Gormania from a hill
beyond the town and saw man walk
ing across the Potomas on two planks.
Grant county was formed in 1866
and has an area of 478 square miles,
with population of 10000.
While in Maryland the road passes
through Red House over the Great
Backbone Mountain and gets back in
to West Virginia at the Youghiogheny
River. You can guess where the
Great Backbone gets it's name when
you learn that the waters of the Poto-
mac find their way into the Atlantic
Ocean by way of the Chesapeake, and
the waters of the Youghiogheny find
their way into the Gulf of Mexico
by way of the Ohio.
Red House is crossroads village.
From there the distance to Oakland,
Maryland, is nine miles, and to Davis,
West Virginia, it is seventeen miles.
The first house in the town was built
when the highway was put through,
shortly after 1880. It was painted red
and was used as a tavern. The house
is still there, now used as a residence,
and it is still painted red.
If you would like to see the Fairfax
Stone, placed by the surveyors who
laid out Lord Fairfax's western land,
turn south at the Red House and run
down toward Davis to a place called
Thomas, in Tucker county. The stone
marks the head of the North Branch
of the Potomac. 1t also marks the
place where several counties come to-
gether and the southwestern limit of
Maryland.
Lord Fairfax, as you may recall, is
one of the outstanding figures in the
history of Virginia. Thomas, Lord
Fairfax, Baron of Cameron, inherited
through his mother, Catherine Gull
pepper Fairfax, the enormous estate
of her father, Thomas, Lord Fairfax.
This estate in America included all
of the section of Virginia known as
the Northern Neck and which lies be-
tween the Rappahannock and the Po-
tomac. This land extended from the
Chesapeake Bay to the headwaters
of the Potomac, and the Fairfax Stone
marked its northern and western linn
it. Quite piece of land! Lord Fair
fax lived for years in Virginia, prior
to and during the Revolution, and
died at his home in the Shenandoah
Valley.
After leaving Red House, going
west, YOU run along on plateau for
about ten miles, until you start down
the steep grade, with 81 turns in three
miles, that will take you into the
Cheat River Gorge and over the river
by means of covered bridge at Daw-
son Camp. While you are on the
plateau you pass through Aurora,
small mountain resort that was orig
inally called the German Settlement.
It has an altitute of 2,676 feet and
there are several hotels and cottages.
You are now in Preston county,
which was organized in 1918. 1t was
taken from Monongalia and was
named for James Patton Preston, then
governor of Virginia. The county has
an area of 653 square miles and a
population of 10000.
The scenery in the neighborhood OF
Aurora is particularly worth while.
You ride through groves of spruce
and chestnut before you start down
the grade to the river, and as you de-
scend on a road that sings to the side
of one ridge you look across a deep
and narrow valley at another ridge
that is almost parallel.
The name of Cheat River comes
from the fact that although it looks
shallow enough to wade across, there
are spots in it deep enough to drown
an adult.
Between this point and Grafton, the
next town, the scenery is plenty wild.
You travel for miles without seeing
people or houses. Just trees and