It's waterfall week on the stoop!

FINALLY started chasing our friend Porte Crayon

Oh good! You’re still subscribed!

I was afraid you might have found the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of these emails. Just ignore that please - act like it’s not there while I have a word with whoever thought it a good idea to make it easy to leave this email list. Geez …

Anyway, I may have to cut short this week’s “stoop news.” My yard is calling. I meant to mow before my wife and I left to spend a few days tramping around Canaan Valley, in the high mountains of our home state of West Virginia. But true to form, I put it off - as I do most things. We’re back home now and that chore is hanging over my head. It’s hard keeping up with the neighbors.

However, I did promise a “then and now” picture of the iconic Blackwater Falls. So before I fire up the lawn mower let’s see how that turned out.

If you took a peek at the previous stoop news, then you’re already familiar with the topmost image. It’s an illustration of Blackwater Falls that our friend, Martinsburg native David Hunter Strother (aka Porte Crayon) created for his series of travelogues called “The Mountains” published in the 1870s in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. We visited on a day when water levels were low, but I have a pic that I took at around this time a few years ago that more closely resembles Porte’s illustration.

The water was RAGING.

Blackwater Falls is the main attraction of Blackwater State Park. But there are other falls in and around the area that are worth seeking out. For instance, there’s Elakala Falls. Elakala is actually a series of waterfalls. They descend from high above the Blackwater River, near the lodge at the state park.

And there’s also Douglas Falls, just outside the Tucker County town of Thomas.

You may be wondering why I’m telling you about West Virginia waterfalls instead of sticking with my usual stoop schtick. It started with this Strother illustration included in his 1853 account of his hunting and fishing trip to Canaan Valley, the one that made quite a splash (see what I did there?) around the country, making him a household name.

I intended to find the fall that Porte drew. Looks worth it, doesn’t it?

Porte’s narrative says it’s the Black Fork of the Cheat River. But on the next page, you’ll find a correction saying Porte was mistaken, that he and his cronies never made it to the Cheat and that it actually tumbled down into the Blackwater.

Next time I visit the Blackwater country, I’ll ask around. For now, I remain in the dark. The closest we came to a waterfall that looked remotely like the one depicted was Elakala, but I’m just not sure.

If you can confirm that it’s Elakala, please drop me comment and let me know. Or if it’s some other waterfall, tell me how to get there! Also, feel free to pass along any pictures you may have lying around and any anecdotes about the region you know. It’d be fun to trade tall tales. You can do all that in the comments.

That’s it for this edition of the stoop. Off to cut the grass. For next time I’m planning to tell you a funny story or two about our trip. We also visited Spruce Knob and Seneca Rocks, where I ran into an old friend and fellow journalist I hadn’t seen in years and also where Ornery Dog Jasper finally decided to relieve himself.

See you next week, but before I go - these things, as they say, don't write themselves. If you get as much of a kick out of reading “News From the Stoop” as I do writing it, please share and help get the word out.

ggs

By the way, if you’re interested in reading the narrative that made Porte famous around the country, it’s a free download from Google books. You can find it here.