Preston County offers a variety of attractions for a vacation, day or weekend trip. Kingwood offers a walk-through historic district that you can see colonial homes, a 1927 gas station display, and sometimes you can visit locations that offer the taste of buckwheat cakes.
The Cheat River is a nearly an 80-mile tributary of the Monongahela River that runs through several counties in West Virginia. One activity that is well know is white water rafting and kayaking.
“Just in this one little stretch of river you got essentially for every ability level. There’s commercial rafting companies that do a great job of rafting. We saw from rafts out today. Your paddeling down these beautiful gorges, and watching the seasons change and the scenery is just spectacular,” said Chris White.
White said he and a group from Washington, D.C. kayak on the Potomac River, and also find the Cheat River satisfying as well. White said the group has been practicing for several weeks to get ready for the Cheat River Down River Race during the first week of May.
A 15-minute drive from Kingwood brings you into the town of Arthurdale. Arthurdale was the nation’s first “New Deal” subsistence project championed by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Modern Amenities not commonly available around the country at that time, including electricity, indoor plumbing and refrigerators were provided to all 165 homes constructed by the federal government as a way to help families during the great depression.
“So it got a lot of attention in being the first, and there were ultimately 98 communities that followed after this one, and there across the country,” said Torey Siebart, Americorp Volunteer.
Siebart said it requires a lot of fundraising, and she enjoys being a part of it.
“All of the work is fun, and fulfilling. I get to live in one of the museum buildings. So that’s really neat, I love my little house, and the community their really wonderful to work with. We have a lot of volunteers. It’s really fun.” Siebart said.
