Summers County

Summers County was formed on February 27, 1871, from parts of Fayette, Greenbrier, Mercer, and Monroe counties and was named for George W. Summers, a prominent jurist and legislator from Virginia and then West Virginia. It was primarily agricultural and timber until the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad mainline was built in the early 1870's, after which the railroad became a major industry with a division headquarters in Hinton. The county's notable sites include the Graham House at Lowell, built between 1770 and 1772 by Colonel James Graham as a two-story fortified home on the Greenbrier River and regarded as the first permanent settlement in the region; in 1777 Shawnee attackers killed Graham's 10-year-old son, a visiting neighbor, and a young slave boy, and captured his daughter Elizabeth, whom he ransomed in 1785. The county also includes the Great Bend Tunnel at Talcott, linked to the legend of John Henry, a former slave and steel-driver for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad after the Civil War who, according to the story, defeated a steam drill in a contest during tunnel construction before dying shortly afterward; construction began in 1870, the tunnel was completed on September 12, 1872, and later lined with more than 6 million bricks. Other landmarks include the Summers County Memorial Building, a modified Greek Revival structure built in 1938 as part of Works Progress Administration projects; Bluestone Dam at Hinton, begun in 1942, suspended during World War II, operational in January 1949 and completed in 1952 as part of a flood control system; and Sandstone Falls, the largest waterfall on the New River.

Hinton, West Virginia · United States