An Evening Hike and Ghost Town History

Destination: An Evening Hike and a Railroad Ghost Town.

The Happy Wanderer

So here we go again, an evening hike and then a quick trip down to a train station to watch the coal trains traveling through the New River Gorge.

Rend Trail
Sandstone Cliff

 Tonight it was hiking the Rend Trail in Thurmond WV.  The Rend Trail is an old rail bed that has been converted to a double track bike and hiking trail. It is an easy trail with no steep sections at all.  The trail is 3.5 miles long, well graded, and has awesome views of the gorge and the ghost town of Thurmond across the New River Gorge. However, the trail is a constant uphill grade which does make it good for some cardio training. Do remember, that after you make it to the top of the trail, you do have the reward of an easy downhill hike back to your car!

The hike was finished just before dark and the decision was made to head down to the bottom of the gorge approximately 2 miles and visit the Ghost Town of Thurmond WV. 


Thurmond Depot

To be honest Thurmond is not a true ghost town.  There are several full time residents of the town.  The town during the winter has 3  permament residents and come spring, the town's population swells to a whopping 7 residents as the 4 people who summer here return.  Talk about an influx of people.

Thurmond's claim to fame was being a railroad town in around the turn of the 20th century.  The population at its height was only about 500 persons, but do to its importance in moving freight and coal it had 2 banks, resturants, a hotel and a casino among other things.  In fact, the hotel and casino were the place to be for the vacationing well to do and even Presidents of the United States were known to book a room in the hotel and ply their luck in the casino. 

Today all that is left is the shell of several stores, a few houses and a functioning Amtrak Depot.  Remember the post several days ago regarding the depot at Prince NC?  Well, this one is restored to the cost of over 3 million dollars by the park service and apparently the average Amtrak train stopping at the Thurmond Depot drops off or picks up only 3 passengers. 

How do I know how many people board the train here?  Well, we were hanging out at the Depot when an older gentleman came down the road on a bicycle.  This gentleman was the volunteer who workes for the National Parks Service and his office was in the train station.  So, for the next hour or so, he was kind enough to tell us all about Thurmond, the history or the town and residents and other triva about the area.  I must say it was interesting and the local history had shall we say a bit of color to it...

So, another enjoyable evening out in the woods is in the books.  The hike did nothing for training for the mountains...well, actually a bit of cardio and endurance, but it was good for the soul.

Thru Hiker......