Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge preserves the unique wetlands and uplands of this high-elevation, moist valley, whose landscape reflects a long history of changing human uses and values. Early explorers encountered an old-growth forest of huge trees and dense undergrowth that discouraged most settlement, and not until the 1860s did a few settlers appear. Logging began in the 1880s as railroads entered the valley, and within forty years the ancient forests were gone. Cooperative farming was tried in the 1940s, and beginning in the 1950s the ski industry turned snow into a cash crop. In 1970, plans for the Davis Power Project proposed damming and flooding the valley, drawing support from those who saw economic opportunity and opposition from those who viewed the wetlands and resilient plant communities as a treasure worth protecting. After years of legal battles, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had acted properly in prohibiting the dam, clearing the way for creation of the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge in 1994.