Focusing on Fayetteville

One of Elaine’s and my favorite places to visit is Southern West Virginia’s Fayetteville, one of many enticing small towns in the Mountain State. Fayetteville lies near the nation’s newest national park, the New River Gorge National Park, which is reason enough to experience the area. But the community sports numerous other charms as well. Here’s how we spent a recent two-day sojourn in the area.

Float the New River, Plus Yoga?

When we arrived, our first stop was Adventures on the Gorge, which offers whitewater rafting, fishing, rock climbing, zip lines, and a host of other outdoor activities, including even a weekly yoga class. At AOTG, I met my guide for a day of fishing, birding, and whitewater rafting, J.P. Schulte.

“What I like best about rafting through the gorge is the seemingly endless green mountains that surround you,” he said. “After all, there’s a reason this place is called ‘The Grand Canyon of the East.’ It’s hard to believe sheer mountains like these exist in our part of the country.”

On our four-mile float from Glade Creek to Grandview Sandbar, we dueled with smallmouth bass, charged through Class IV rapids, and harked to Louisiana waterthrushes, parula warblers, and Acadian flycatchers among dozens of other birds.

Bruce enjoyed the gorge, while Elaine attended the weekly Wednesday morning yoga class at AOTG led by Candace Evans, owner of New River Yoga. To say the experience was unusual would be an understatement. The setting was a wood platform overlooking the New River Gorge with the waterway’s famed steel arch bridge in the background.

Taking a Fancy to Fayetteville

After yoga, Elaine headed for downtown Fayetteville and D&K Collectibles. Owner Dreama Wood said she specializes in West Virginia glassware such as Fostoria, Fiesta Ware, and particularly Blenko.

“One of my favorite items is a Blenko Regal Vase, made in the early 1960s, signed on the bottom by the manufacturer,” she said. “It’s a specialty glassware piece as very few were made. Blenko is also the only remaining West Virginia glass maker.”

Then it was on to Thread, a boutique shop, where Elaine talked with assistant to the owner, Shea Wells.

“We offer consignment clothing, local jewelry and art as well as uniquely designed silk screened T-shirts representing area attractions,” she said. “We also feature Tara Fowler scenic photos, printed on wood, of the gorge and other local attractions.”

The butterfly wing jewelry that Wells creates are intriguing. Actual butterfly wings are encased inside pendants and on bracelet disks. Interestingly, local people bring her wings from dead butterflies they have found.

Lunch was at nearby Pies & Pints, a place where the pizzas have proven tasty in the past. The Grape & Gorgonzola Pie topped with fresh rosemary hit the spot.

“That’s our signature dish—what we’ve become known for,” said Angie Bard, general manager. “Many people say ‘grapes on a pizza, I haven’t seen that.’ But they like the sweet and savory combination.”

Bard added that another favorite is Cuban Pork Pizza, made from pork that staff smokes for eight hours.

Finding ‘primitives’

After lunch, it was time to reconnoiter with Bruce and check out the nearby New River Antique Mall. The most fascinating items we discovered there were what Lee Ball, booth owner, described as “primitives.” They included dough bowls, butter churns, a Jack Daniel’s Whiskey barrel, and a Victory canning recipe book from World War II (then priced at 25 cents). One shelf held vintage A.P. Donaghho Crocks, made in Parkersburg, West Virginia. While Bruce was admiring a signed Pete Rose photo of when he set baseball’s all-time hits record, Elaine purchased a West Virginia-made Fiesta Ware mug.

Next stop was Studio B Art Boutique, Wine, and Beer Gallery. Owner Sarah Jeffers recently added 200 craft beers and six to 10 locally sourced West Virginia beers, such as from the Big Timber, Parkersburg, and Greenbrier Valley brewing companies. As apple enthusiasts, what most fascinated us was the Hawk Knob Appalachian Hard Cider. Elaine grabbed a bottle to take home.

Leaving Studio B, our noses led us across the street to Firecreek BBQ & Steaks as the smell of barbecue was quite enticing. Our server Jordon Ryan said the eatery’s ribs bring in the most customers.

“We smoke them ourselves over white oak and charcoal,” he said. “It’s filling food for a decent price. Another popular entrée is our Loaded Firecreek Mac & Cheese with homemade cheese sauce on noodles, barbecue sauce, and choice of smoked meat. People also love our homemade peanut butter pie … a big fat square with fluffy house-made whip cream on top.”

Based on that glowing report, who could pass up the mac and cheese entrée?

A real highlight of our Fayetteville sojourn was our stay at the Morris Harvey House B&B, a Queen Anne-style home built in 1902. Owners Natalie Scott and Eric Hatsel purchased the establishment in 2021 and soon set about renovating it.

“We had visited Fayetteville to rock climb and felt like it was a very down-to-earth small town,” Scott said. “Coming from the hospitality business, we were very much ready to be our own bosses. In short, we wanted to apply what we had already learned to this place.”

Hatsel added with the New River Gorge receiving its national park designation, the couple saw the potential for the area to receive even more of an influx of visitors. Although the B&B has several original antiques from the first owners, such as the Harvey settee in the parlor, the couple also wanted to add to the turn of the century aura.

“We plugged in our own antiques such as chiffarobes and high-back Victorian walnut beds,” Scott said. “I wanted to make the additions period appropriate, retaining old world charm but with modern comforts.”

That attention to detail is present throughout the B&B. When we arrived, we discovered a welcome note, three homemade shortbread cookies topped with a lavender sprig, and a variety of sodas, wines, and West Virginia beers in a fridge, plus chocolates nearby. In our room were an electric tea kettle, coffee press, sweeteners, and cream—displayed on a marble-topped dresser.

Breakfast the next morning proved to be scrumptious. One of the couple’s most well-received entrees is the Baked French Toast, accompanied by seasonal fruit, in this case strawberries and blueberries with whipped cream. Candied bacon rounded out the entrée.

After breakfast, we headed for the Love Hope Center for the Arts, where we met director Stacey Tope.

Showcasing the arts

“One of our major goals is that we want to let our community know that this is a center where people can come to support and appreciate the arts,” she said. “We feature rotating exhibitions of artists from across the region. Every month, we offer a new exhibition (either a group or a solo show) that showcases Appalachian art.”

Other points of interest include a monthly open-mic night for participants to test various performance works in progress, art items for sale, and a summer youth camp for ages seven through 14.

Lunchtime saw us at the Cathedral Cafe. Server Mia Pino said that the Chipotle Philly receives rave reviews.

“We’re the only restaurant in town that dresses up the Chipotle with a toasted baguette,” she said. “Our other big favorite is the carrot cake which we make fresh twice a week; it has just the right proportion of topping to cake.”

Nevertheless, the Vegetarian Panini and Grilled Cajun Chicken & Tortellini Salad were too tempting to ignore.

Our last stop was the Wolf Creek Birding Area, located several miles outside of town on Fayette County land. Although the national park land dominates the area, other outdoor attractions are worth visiting as well, and Wolf Creek is definitely one of them. Tabitha Stover, executive director of Visit Fayetteville, had arranged for local farmer and wild edible expert Mitchell Dech to give us a tour.

“My parents got me started on eating wild foods by giving me Euell Gibbons’ books when I was young,” he said. “People can eat just about every nut they find in this region except the buckeye. All true pines in this region have needles that can be made into tea. There are truly dozens of things in the woods that you can eat.”

Indeed, just seconds after Dech made that statement, he walked over to a sourwood tree (a species known for its ability to attract bees that create sourwood honey) and plucked several leaves.

“Sourwood leaves are quite tasty,” Dech said as he munched on them.

We walked about 20 yards more on the trail and our guide paused again.

“The needles from this Virginia pine make excellent tea,” he said. In fact, the needles from all our native pines can be used for tea.

During our stopover at Wolf Creek, Dech pointed out some 20 wild edibles. Trails and boardwalks exist to make walking easier. And of course, the birdwatching is quite good; the most interesting species we observed were cedar waxwings hawking for insects.

Yes, Fayetteville is fortunate to have the nation’s newest park nearby, but the town itself makes for a marvelous destination. visitfayettevillewv.com.