CHARLESTON, W.VA. – Sometimes, a family just needs to get away...together. West Virginia offers great opportunities year round for family fun that stretch everyone’s imaginations but leave the electronics behind.
State Park Weekends
West Virginia state parks offer special weekends and programs year round. Beginning with special New Year’s Eve packages and ending with the Centennial Bird Count in December, the programs are diverse and fun. In wintry weather, you can count on weekends dedicated to quilting, dancing or dinner theater. As the weather warms, photography workshops, nature walks and wild foods weekends fill the schedules. Naturalists offer special walks and ghostly campfires in the summer months. And, if it’s some alone time you need, take a hike, a horseback ride or jump in the lake.
Experience the Frontier Past
Along the Ohio River, visitors can relive our country’s past in special ways.
Sitting in the Ohio River, Blennerhassett Island is romantic and reckless. Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett dreamed of a civilized country estate on the island and built a magnificent home. But Harman became involved in Aaron Burr’s treacherous secession plot and the family lost everything. Today, a reconstructed home and property provide visitors with a bird’s-eye view of the splendor of those days.
Farther north, Fort New Salem and Pricketts Fort State Park bring rugged frontier days to life with artisans who demonstrate and offer hands-on opportunities to try blacksmithing, papermaking or apple drying. In December, you can celebrate the traditions of the English, German and Scotch-Irish. Pricketts Fort celebrates the fall harvest with cider and candlelit tours. Nearby Fairmont and Clarksburg offer great options for dining and family fun.
Up, Up and Away!
Morgantown celebrates the fall with its Mountaineer Balloon Festival. More than 50 balloons brighten the brilliant fall skies during this weekend that includes an antique car show, arts and crafts and entertainment. Enjoy the Gaston Caperton Trail for hiking and biking or take a ride on the Monongahela River and learn about its history and spirits. Stop by the Arboretum to see what West Virginia University students are growing and take a drive to Cheat Lake to enjoy the fall scenery.
Search Your Roots
Looking for family history can be a great way to spend time together. Several stops in the Mountain State fit the bill for this kind of family travel outing.
Start in Charleston, at the Cultural Center on the state Capitol complex. There the Archives has a wonderful collection of information and photographs from around the state, including an extensive Civil War genealogy section. In Ansted, the African-American Heritage Family Tree Museum is located in an original coal-company house. Along with documents and artifacts that memorialize the role African-Americans played in our state, the museum houses a collection of photographs by William Harvey Jordan.
Traveling north, stop at the West Virginia Genealogical and Historical Library and Museum, dedicated to history in central West Virginia. This center is located in the historic Horner School in Weston.
In the Eastern Panhandle, the Belle Boyd House, Martinsburg, houses the Berkeley County Historical Society that serves Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.
A Classic American Amusement Park – and More!
At the turn of the 20th Century, streetcar line developers built amusement parks to increase traffic on their electric railcar lines. Camden Park in Huntington was developed by the Camden Interstate Railway, and survives today. Since 1903, the park has been a favorite family place, with a reputation as a fun way to spend a day. Camden Park is famous among roller coaster enthusiasts for its two classic wooden rides, The Big Dipper and The Lil’ Dipper. The rides are considered by the American Coaster Enthusiasts to be “Coaster Classics,” a small group of vintage coasters that have maintained their traditional wooden coaster roots.
Keeping with the vintage theme, head to the Museum of Radio and Technology and the Heritage Farm and Village—both are great reminders of the days before faxes, computers and cellular phones. The Museum of Radio and Technology shows how radio has changed since the 1920’s. Just a short drive away, the Heritage Farm and Village display an awesome collection of vintage farm and home items, nestled in green rolling hills. Imagine a room with more than 40 washing machines of every size and description! Farm tools and medical equipment, kitchen ware and automobiles are all on display in carefully restored barns, homes and outbuildings.
A Great Big Telescope – And Some Small Ones, Too!
Learn more about the exciting field of radio astronomy and the secrets it continues to reveal about the universe through a new, state-of-the-art education center. The 25,000 square-foot facility, located on the grounds of and operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia. The NRAO Astronomy Education & Visitor Center features a large exhibit hall, classrooms, a computer lab, a gift shop and a café. Thirty interactive exhibits guide the public on a journey of discovery, helping them learn fun and exciting facts about radio astronomy and the universe.
The theme of the new center is "Catch the Wave," which highlights both the physics of radio waves, and the fun of being swept along by the interactive science displays. The center has specially tailored elements designed for K-12 education as part of school field trips. These displays immerse students in a real-world research environment, and allow children to experience the enjoyment and wonder of science and engineering.
After experiencing the fun in the center, guests can take a bus tour of the grounds and see the Robert C. Byrd Telescope, the world’s largest fully steerable telescope. Along the way, telescopes representing the development of outer space exploration allow visitors to marvel at how far we’ve come in our efforts to discover more about the universe.
More information is available by calling Division of Tourism’s toll-free hotline, 1-800-CALL WVA. Callers also can request a free travel guide, calendar of events and other information through the number or the Division’s web site, www.callwva.com.
