Pipestem Resort State Park is a 4,050-acre resort park in southern West Virginia along the Bluestone River gorge on the Mercer-Summers county border. Developed with Area Redevelopment Administration grants during President John F. Kennedy’s administration, it opened on Memorial Day in 1970 and became one of the state’s best-known parks. Named for the local pipestem shrub, whose straight stems were once used for pipe stems, the park is especially notable for using the steep gorge terrain itself, including a hotel reached only by aerial tramway. Its cabins, golf courses, restaurants, horseback riding, nature center, and reconstructed Harris Homestead combine recreation, lodging, and environmental and rural history.