In August 1843, Harvard botanist Asa Gray crossed Cheat Mountain by way of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and discovered plants new to science. He was later one of the original 50 named to the New York Hall of Fame. Near the place where the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike crossed Cheat Mountain Summit one-fourth mile west, remnants of a Buffalo-Indian Trail and of a wagon road from a 1788 survey can still be seen.