Barton Knob, a summit on Cheat Mountain in southeastern West Virginia within Monongahela National Forest, reflects the region’s shifting uses of forest land. A fire tower has stood on the summit since at least 1939; although abandoned and considered unsafe by 2016, it remained even after a radio repeater was installed nearby in 2012. The surrounding slopes also show the legacy of strip mining that occurred before the area entered the national forest as part of the Mower Tract in 1986, and the Strip Mine Trail now crosses much of that disturbed ground. Since 2010, part of Barton Knob has also been used for ecological restoration aimed at bringing back native red spruce and hardwood forest.