Spice Run

 

Spice Run, located in southern Pocahontas County, West Virginia, along the Greenbrier River, has a history defined by early settlement, a early-20th-century logging boom, and conversion into a federal wilderness area.

1. Etymology and Early Settlement (19th Century)

• Name Origin: The area and its primary tributary were named after Lindera benzoin (commonly known as "spicebush" or "spicewood"), a native shrub growing along the stream banks.

• Early Milling: Prior to large-scale industrial logging, early 19th-century settlement along Spice Run was sparse. Land patents in the area included tracts granted to figures such as Paul McNeel, who operated a small, water-powered sawmill near the mouth of Spice Run in the mid-1800s to harvest white pine.

2. The Timber Boom & Spice Run Lumber Company (1910–1925)

The opening of the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railway’s Greenbrier Subdivision along the river at the turn of the 20th century transformed the isolated area into a commercial logging hub.

• Company and Town: The Spice Run Lumber Company was organized in 1910 and began operations at Spice Run in 1913. A company mill town quickly developed:

  • The band mill was built on the narrow strip between the C&O tracks and the Greenbrier River.

  • The residential town for workers and families was situated on the land across the railroad tracks.

• Logging Railroads & Logistics: To haul timber out of the surrounding mountains, the company constructed heavy infrastructure:

  • Heavy concrete piers were poured into the bed of the Greenbrier River to carry a logging railroad across the river into an 8,000-acre timber tract along the Spice Run and Davy Run watersheds.

  • In 1915, the company expanded by building a 5-mile branch line extending west up Mill Run and over Droop Mountain to harvest another 7,000 acres.

• Decline and Closure: By 1925, the old-growth timber stands on both sides of the river had been depleted. The sawmill ceased operations, the logging railroad was dismantled, and the town dissolved, leaving behind only scattered ruins.

3. Federal Acquisition and Reforestation

• Following the passage of the federal Weeks Act of 1911—enacted to purchase cutover timberland for watershed protection and flood prevention—the U.S. Forest Service acquired the Spice Run acreage in the early 1920s.

• The land was incorporated into the Monongahela National Forest, where decades of natural regeneration restored the second-growth hardwood forest.

4. Wilderness Designation and Modern Era

• Wilderness Act Protection: Under the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, Congress formally designated 6,030 acres in the area as the Spice Run Wilderness.

• Current Status:

  • Today, Spice Run Wilderness is managed as a primitive, trail-less backcountry area within the Monongahela National Forest, directly across the Greenbrier River from the Greenbrier River Trail.

  • Historic Remnants: Remnants of the boom-town era remain visible, including the concrete bridge piers standing in the Greenbrier River and old rail grade outlines. Only one original residence from the 1910s Spice Run community remains standing near the river corridor.