Hike #1390; Weirton to Wellsburg

 

Hike #1390: 1/29/21 Weirton to Wellsburg with Jillane Becker

This was the second attempt at a long trip after finding out that Jillane was pregnant, and we made an effort to keep getting out and getting exercise.

We had last been to Weirton West Virginia when we had completed walking across Pennsylvania. We ended up in Weirton, but we didn't get to going any farther because we couldn't find a place to stay.

This time, we had planned that we would hike south through Wellsburg and stay there. I had secured a room for the night there, and we could then walk to Wheeling West Virginia the next day.

Wheeling is one of those cities I've never really been to. I'd drive by it, but never experienced it. The idea of actually connecting a hike to there sounded fantastic.

Everything seemed alright, and the forecast initially looked promising.

The six hour drive out there was not an easy one, and we nearly ran out of gas getting there, but we were alright.

I think we stayed the night at Fairfield Inn and Suites just to the east of Weirton, which was one of the places I was thinking we might have stayed on the previous trip, but it didn't work out. This time, we would have to double back on some of what we had done on the previous trip, and then continue south.
I didn't mind that at all, because we didn't really do any of West Virginia in the daylight at all. It would almost be like a new hike.

It would also be the first hike we'd ever do that was entirely in West Virginia beginning to end.

We started walking from the hotel through lawns and such heading south. 

Park Drive passes through the area of a Walmart Super Center, and then becomes a dead end that used to go through. From the other side, Thompson Hill Road is still a dead end, and leads back down to the Panhandle Trail, which was the Panhandle Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It had been abandoned in this area since 1991, and turned into a trail later.

We passed a Steel Workers Honor Role memorial of sorts as we began walking, passed the Walmart, passed an industrial building on the right, and then the paved road ended at a cul de sac at another building. We turned right off of that and onto a gravel old road, descended a bit, and then emerged at the closed end of Thompson Hill Road next to a private house. It was obvious that some ATVs and such still make their way through on this road.

I sipped a Double Jack IPA by Firestone Walker as we peacefully walked down the sometimes steep road, with some seasonal views and a power line view. 

Near the bottom, rather than going too far out of the way, we turned right on Colliers Steel Road. This crossed Alexanders Run, then passed an old building that appeared not to be used much any more. 

At the end of the road, we turned left through a grassy meadow to reach an access to the Panhandle Trail. Apparently people access it from this point regularly.

Unlike the sections in Pennsylvania, none of this was paved, which I like better for walking.

The railroad was double tracked, and although the trail only takes up one of those beds, the entire two track right of way is wide and cleared. 

We headed west and passed a little picnic area in Colliers, near a bar on the other side of the Harmon Creek, which closely parallels the raiil bed into Weirton. 

We passed by a spot where Harmon Creek Road, parallel with us, was rerouted, and the old bridge abutments over the creek were still visible. A second crossing of the creek on the same older road was still in place, badly deteriorated.

When we reached the point that Harmon Creek Road crossed over the rail bed, where there is a large old signal bridge, we took a break.

From there, we had to climb up to the road and cross, then continue on Cove Road into Weirton.

While walking this section of road, we passed a Salvation Army thrift store. Of course, we couldn't just pass it by. We were doing alright on time, and so we went in and had a look around.

I don't remember what we purchased, but probably something.

From here, we headed to the west on Cove Road, and crossed over the railroad tracks that served the steel mills.

The City of Weirton has a pretty interesting history.

I always associate cities this far west with being a bit newer, and no serious development much before the early 1800s, but Weirton dates back to before the American Revolution, when Hollidays Cove Fort was constructed in 1774 by soldiers from Fort Pitt in present day Pittsburgh. The historic fort location was in what is now downtown Weirton.

The settlement known as Hollidays Cove grew around the fort site. The fort was used significantly in 1777 and 1779, it being a strategic location on the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and Wheeling.

Ernest T. Weir established a steel mill just north of Hollidays Cove in 1909, and the unincorporated community of Weirton grew around it. By 1940, it was said to be the largest unincorporated city in the United States. 

In 1947, Hollidays Cove, the unincorporated city of Weirton, and the outlying hillside communities of Marland Heights and Weirton Heights, were formally incorperated as the City of Weirton.

The Weirton Steel Corporation, at its height, employed over twelve thousand people, and was both the largest tax payer and largest private employer of people in West Virginia.

By the 1980s, just like with the other steel mills, this prosperity was ending. Only the tin plating portion of the old mills is still in service, and many of the buildings that were part of the larger steel mill have been demolished only recently. There are a lot of videos of the demolition of these mills online, which we watched in the days to follow this.

It's still an interesting town, but is sort of a run down version of what it was. 

We walked into the Hollidays Cove original area, and some businesses were open there, but the other areas on the outskirts were much shuttered. 

A sign noted that James J. Andrews, who's true story was immortalized in the Walt Disney production "The Great Locomotive Chase", was born in Weirton in 1829. He seized a locomotive and tried to move it above Union lines. 

Some of the buildings through town still had painted advertisements on them that were still legible. In most places, those types of things have all faded nearly to obscurity.

There were all sorts of questionable businesses on the other side of town as we headed west. They all seemed to be strip clubs or something. Buildings with no windows. One advertised great "hot" food.

Freedom Way was the street we followed to the west side of town. 

We went beneath a railroad culvert, and on the other side was an access road to the left. I figured on this being the best way to continue south on the Ohio River.

Route 2 is the road that goes south, but it was a sort of limited access highway with no good access. I knew we would have to get along the river, not the highway, to continue safely. Or as safely as possible. 

There were no signs saying not to go up that way, but I figured we weren't supposed to be there, so we continued to walk up the road and across the Harmon Creek. On the other side, we turned right, parallel with Rt 22 toward the Veterans Memorial Bridge that connects to Steubenville.

The bridge was completed in 1990 and took over ten years since the start of construction.

The bridge replaced the Fort Steuben Bridge, which was a suspension bridge built in 1928. I was surprised to learn that the Fort Steuben Bridge, despite having been replaced by the new bridge, coexisted with it until it was demolished in 2012. 

It is unfortunate that the new bridge doesn't have a walkway on it, and in fact doesn't have at all enough room to walk over it, because the Great American Rail Trail is supposed to cross the river somewhere here. There would need to be some way of crossing to make that connection, and the bridge does not look to amenable to haveing anything added.

We had a great view of the bridge as we approached, and then we dipped down to the left beneath the structure, which was loaded with graffiti.

To the left, we had a good view of the Steubenville Railroad Bridge, completed in 1926, with 1909 approaches, on the same site as the original 1865 bridge. The current bridge reuses one pier from the original.

The bridge was constructed around the original which made for no interruption in traffic save for one day when the switchover occurred.

It is a Continuous Rivet-Connected Baltimore Through Truss structure with Metal 6 Panel Rivet-Connected Warren Deck Truss approach spans.

This was once a main line, the same Panhandle route of the Pennsylvania Railroad we had been walking earlier. Under Conrail, it was made a secondary, and the Panhandle Line was abandoned from Weirton to Carnegie. This bridge still sees some industrial service, but only a shadow of what it once was.

We had considered on the previous hike going across on the catwalk along this bridge, but I figured it might be a bad idea. I was kicking myself over that when we got there, because there were people just casually walking over the bridge like it was normal!

This is probably one of those towns that had the catwalk originally on the bridge for workers traveling back and forth between the towns. Since there is no pedestrian route between Steubenville and Weirton, I suppose it's kind of just accepted that people are going to walk the bridge.

Already at this point, we could see down the Ohio River, the enormous flame emanating from the top of the stack of the Mountain State Carbon coke plant.

Some of this was like a step back in time to past industrial times that were once part of New Jersey and Pennsylvania near home.

The views of the bridges were outstanding. The weather was perfect, and the path, although kind of muddy, was not so much so that we were slipping and sliding.

The path continued along the river for some time, which was great for us. There were nice views of the cut away rocks along Rt 2 high above to the left of us.

I thought back to home, and how these were probably more brittle rocks than what we have in NJ along the Delaware Water Gap, and yet they are pushing for a major rock wall or fencing project that will cost billions. Across the country there are countless places like this without such structures, and NJ DOT insists that it is necessary through Delaware Water Gap.

The path along the river took us a good distance, but eventually became a mess of undergrowth, so we headed up to the tracks. Pretty soon, the Market Street Bridge over the Ohio River came into view.

The handsome suspension bridge was completed in 1905.

It is said that the Steubenville Bridge Company was created solely to erect this particular bridge. Local business interests had supposedly made an agreement with the Follansbee Brothers that they would erect the bridge if they established their steel plant in the farm fields on the West Virginia side of the river. As such, it would be easy for workers to commute from Steubenville to the Follansbee mills.

We could see the stack better as we moved down the river, and it spewed flames from the top of the stack, then stopped, then started again. The Follansbee brothers established the mills there in 1902, which makes sense considering the time of the bridge planning.

Mountain State Carbon has been operating the plant in Follansbee since 1917.

Jillane took a break below, and I climbed up to get on the old bridge. It was quite nice. Part of me really wanted to just cross and continue further into Ohio. The main reason we didn't do this as our trajectory anyway was the fact that we'd have to walk for so long on tracks. There are no rail trails or good other trails in place until reaching the town of Jewett to the west, and that would be at least 25 miles on the tracks.

I also really wanted to see Wheeling.

I ran from the end of the bridge to the center, just so I could say I've walked from my home all the way to Ohio. We didn't quite touch Ohio the last time, so this was the closest I got to it.

I found out later that the Ohio border is closer to the west side of the river, so I actually didn't make it to Ohio this time. That will have to be another trip unfortunately.

We continued along the railroad from here heading south.

I was surprised that there wasn't a whole lot of information on this line available when I was looking it up.

I found that it was originally the Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Kentucky Railroad, with the first section completed in 1878.

It became part of the massive Pennsylvania Railroad system, and the first sections of it were removed in 1980, while other sections like the one we were following were still used to access plants like the one in Follansbee.

Another large railroad bridge crossed the Ohio River just ahead, which I think is the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, built in 1917. I couldn't find a lot of information on it except that it is directly tied to the Follansbee plant.

Smoke emanated along the bridge from the plant as we approached.

I knew going into it that walking right through the steel plant on the tracks was not going to be accepted, and when we started to get close, we instead bushwhacked up the slope to the left to get to Route 2.

Our presence did not go unnoticed. As we were walking along the road, a lady who was a security guard at the plant approached us and told us we couldn't be there. I think she indicated that she had called the local police, and said something about the security and safety of the site. I explained truthfully what we were doing, and where we were going, and she didn't try to hold us much longer.

We continued south toward the intersection with Veterans Drive where we planned on turning left away from the highway, and then a police officer approached us when there was a wider shoulder.

I kind of knew this would happen, and didn't want to deal with any issues, but this officer was the friendliest ever. He told us he'd gotten the call, and that he understood what we were doing, but that he was concerned about us walking on the busy road too. To my surprise, he told us to just head through Follansbee, and on the south side of town to just get back on the tracks and walk them.

He went on to explain to us that the plant was really not a safe place, and so that's why they wouldn't want photography or anything. He described horrible incidents with the manner of steel making, and how it results in explosions. He referred to the Follansbee plant as a "ticking time bomb". I believe he said he grew up in Weirton, and described some examples of these issues up there.

He also said that West Virginia did not have the safety and environmental regulations found just four miles away in Pennsylvania.

It was announced on May 12, 2022, that the Mountain State Carbon plant would cease operation entirely, only just over a year since the officer talked about these issues. All employees will be transferred to other locations, and twelve will remain to see to closure of the plant and environmental remediation.

I'm so glad we walked by this when we did, because it reminded me of when my dad took me by the Bethlehem Steel plant just before it was to close. He said he wanted me to see that in operation, and how expansive it was when he found out it was closing.

We stopped for a break at Sheetz on the next corner for snacks and drinks.

I was planning from here to walk Veterans Drive, but the cop had told us that it was blocked off to public and that only employees could go in that way, that we were better off following the main street through town. He told us exactly where we could get back on the tracks.

We walked some side streets a bit, and checked out a stream called Allegheny Steel Run. The bridge carrying some of the main roads through town was deteriorating and collapsing pretty badly.

The downtown was pretty cool to see, with some nice structures. By the time we got to the south side of town and made our way closer to the tracks again, there was a wide open area of cement foundation that must have once been more of the plant operation that has already been demolished.

More mills were in view across the river, the Ohio Valley Industrial Park, in a settlement called Mingo Junction.

We got back on the tracks and continued to the south, and soon reached the Wabash Bridge, once the largest cantilever bridge in the world. It carried the Wabash-Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad, which we had walked some of on our previous trip out there, over the Ohio River. It was completed in 1904, and has ornamental tops on the peaks of the cantilever trusses.

Just to the south of here, we crossed Cross Creek, and passed a spot where they seasonally have a farmers market. It was starting to get dark at this point, but ambient lights from buildings on the other side of the river provided some light.

It wasn't long before we reached the north side of Wellsburg, and the Yankee Trail started pretty quickly there. At first, the rails are still in place, and so the trail is down below the rails to the right. We descended to follow the trail.

Wellsburg is the county seat of Brooke County WV.

The land was first claimed by the Cox Brothers in 1772 under "tomahawk rights", a process of claiming land without authority, but was widely accepted by pioneer settlers. In 1788, Charles Prather purchased 488 acres of land from the Cox heirs to set up the settlement of Wellsburg, which was established in 1791.

The town was named Charles Town for Prather, confusion with another similarly named town led to it being changed in 1816 to Wellsburg, after Charles Wells, who was Charles Prather's son in law who had established a flour mill.

Adjacent settlements of Midway and Lazearville were annexed to Wellsburg in 1890.

The Yankee Trail moved up closer to the railroad tracks in town, At one crossing, there were concrete barriers in place that read "no entry" on them, which was confusing due to the sign directly across the street reading "Yankee Trail". The trail did seem to end, so we just walked the tracks again for a time, and then Yankee Street was right beside them soon. We walked the street section, and at 20th Street, the trail turned off to parallel the tracks again.

At 16th Street, the tracks came to an end, and the paved trail shifted from next to, to onto the railroad bed.

Jillane didn't want to continue on the rail bed for some reason, and she went out to walk the main street. While I was interested in seeing downtown Wellsburg, I preferred to stay on the tracks, and then came upon an old station to the left. I wish I'd seen it in the daylight.

There was a Wendy's on the left after a bit of time, so I went in there and got a couple of sandwiches. Jillane didn't show up or walk by, so I went back to the rail bed and continued south.

Yankee Street joined the rail bed again and I had to walk the road. I figure that the trail probably once was Yankee Street all the way through, and that it was the name applied to the trail for that reason, next to the tracks.

From 11th to 9th Streets it was trail again, and then was on Yankee Street again. Then from 6th to 4th it was trail again, then back to street. Yankee Street terminates at 2nd Street with no way through, but our destination was just above on Rt 2.

I had secured a room in the Blue Chip Motel for the night, the only lodging available in Wellsburg with the idea that we would head to Wheeling the next day.

I had to backtrack on the rail bed, and then went up a steep grassy slope to reach Rt 2 skirting a back yard.

It was tough to get in touch with the place to secure the room, but I did before we left for the trip.

The room wasn't ready when we arrived, and the lady who was in charge of it had to get it together. The mattress was gross and the room rivaled the B&B we had stayed at on the Panhandle line on the previous trip for about the worst we'd stayed in. The people were friendly, and it could have been much worse, but it was just not such a good spot from what I saw. These places can be a gamble when there aren't many online reviews and it's a middle of nowhere thing. Clearly, not many people stay there.

Jillane showed up and we settled in for the night.

It was disappointing to find that the forecast, originally good for the weekend, was now horrible. Heavy snow and a lot of accumulation was predicted. So, despite having traveled six hours to get out there, we had to cut our trip short and not go to Wheeling this time.

I woke up in the morning and walked down Rt 2 in the snow a bit, and checked out where a new bowstring arch bridge was being erected over the Ohio River, just beyond the Buffalo Creek confluence. Maybe the bridge would be in place by the time we get back out there to finish our journey.

It is only 16 miles from where we finished to Wheeling on the Brooke-Pioneer Trail and the Wheeling Heritage Trail, both on the same rail line we had followed most of the day.

I was able to get us a taxi back to Weirton the next day, and I had a slow and stressful drive in the snow six hours more to get home. Particularly crossing the Alleghenies and Ridge and Valley district, it was very tough.

We tried to get back to this over the next several months, but every time we tried to plan for it, the weather was not cooperative and we ended up going somewhere else. I hope to eventually connect with Wheeling, hopefully while the baby is still in a stroller to make the best of those days while they last.