Tell me the history of Spruce in Pocahontas County WV

 

Spruce, West Virginia, is an unincorporated community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. It is located on the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River, 12 miles (19 km) south of Marlinton. Spruce was founded in 1902 as a logging camp for the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company. The company built a pulp mill in Spruce, and the town quickly grew into a thriving community.

Spruce had a post office, a school, a general store, and a number of other businesses. The town was also home to a number of boarding houses and hotels, which accommodated the many lumberjacks and other workers who came to Spruce looking for work.

The logging industry in Spruce began to decline in the early 1900s, as the forests of the area became depleted. The pulp mill in Spruce closed in 1925, and the town began to decline rapidly.

By the mid-1900s, Spruce was a ghost town. The post office closed in 1950, and the school closed in 1960. The only buildings left in Spruce were a few abandoned houses and the ruins of the pulp mill.

The history of Spruce is a story of boom and bust. The town thrived during the logging boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s, but it declined rapidly after the logging industry collapsed.

Spruce is a reminder of the importance of protecting our natural resources and of the resilience of the human spirit.