[Sue and our bikes in the Cass parking lot. The two large adjoining barracks houses is seen in the back.]

The town existed until the mountains around had been stripped totally of salable timber. The railroad was built up to the point where the logging began. The heavy Shay steam engines were designed to bring the heavy loads down to the valley where they could be sawn into smaller logs which were then hauled by trucks and mules to regular railroad cars in the lower valleys.

When the lumber ran out, including the second growth stands which could be harvested for making pulp, so did the owners. By 1960 the site was abandoned. The state eventually bought the site and the railroad and slowly is building it up to be an important tourist attraction. Several rail rides to three different destinations are popular and it is a nice family destination.

For those who would like more than a day trip the company houses have been refurbished and can be rented as cabins for those who want to get a better feel of what it was like living in a "company town."

A Wikipedia article does a good job detailing the history of the site and the uniqueness of the locomotives at Cass.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Scenic_Railroad_State_Park

Some additional pictures will give you a better idea of the place.

 

[One of the specially geared locomotives that pushes the open sided excursion cars up the mountains.]

[A closer look at the barracks building that holds the modern version of the old Company Store. A larger barracks joins this one on the right.

[Inside the Company Store, looking at the curio and souvenir section. The store is large and has an historical section beyond this picture, and a cafe behind where I took the picture, as well as a old fashion soda fountain, next picture.]

[The soda fountain area of the Company Store at Cass.]

We ate lunch at the Cafe in the store, explored some of the historical exhibits and walked around a bit, but did not take any train rides. The shortest ride was two hours and the other two were five hours. We stayed about two and a half hours and learned a great deal about the history of the place.

But we had one more place we wanted to visit before we called it a day. So having had a nice time we got back on the bikes, took one final swing around the company town and headed out of town the way we came, riding slowly down the pretty and narrow road back to the valley, enjoying the sun which was now peeking out more than it was hiding; and got back to WVA28.

From there it was only another five miles further north to a place that exists primarily due to the power of Senator Byrd to get nice federal facilities and roads for West Virginia: the Byrd National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank. With a name like that it had better be impressive. And it is.

The thing you see first as you approach the site is the world's largest steerable radio telescope. There are several other smaller radio telescopes as part of this large complex, but all the others are dwarfed by this giant.

[The world's largest steerable radio telescope. Those tiny objects at the bottom include full size 18 wheeler trailers. A smaller telescope can be seen in the background.]

Direct access to the large telescope was only by a bus and we were told that there was no docent to give us explanations of the scope. Since the next bus would not leave for another hour we decided to spend our time in the Science Center. There was a certain irony to that for there were nice viewing telescopes on the deck and good brochures explaining the operation of the radio telescopes.

I think we lucked out and could see much more than we would have from the bus. What we missed was the idea of being under something "big." That didn't seem much of a loss to us, especially when we went through the Center's interactive museum. That was very educational, and for us, not just for children. Or, perhaps for an hour and a half we just let our inner children out and enjoyed it.

In any case it was more fun than I thought it would be. We got to see what the telescopes "saw" through the radio frequencies, the discoveries they made and how they were able to interpret the data to draw their conclusions. It was fascinating.

A couple of web sites for those who enjoy this kind of science.

The official site: http://www.gb.nrao.edu/

Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bank_Telescope

It was very late when we left Green Bank and we headed back to Marlinton on the same roads, arriving after 8 pm. We had traveled all of 72 miles!!  But we had a good time. Neither of us wanted much to eat so we rode out to Dairy Queen, had hamburgers and fries and ate Blizzards. Sadly, that was the best meal we had up to that point in Marlinton.

We were enjoyably tired and went back to the Old Clark Inn, locked up the bikes and headed for the shower. Sue decided she could sleep but I was still nowhere near sleepy so I went out to the common room, grabbed a mystery paperback and read for a few hours.

I went to bed about 1 a.m., tired, ready to sleep.  That was when a neighborhood dog started barking, waking the dogs who lived at the Old Clark. (Had I mentioned that the Old Clark is dog friendly as well as motorcycle friendly?) Sue slept through it. Eventually either the dogs quite barking or I just passed out. I don't remember. Morning came at some point.

END OF PART THREE

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