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Shame in Smoke Hole Canyon

1/26/2019

5 Comments

 
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​I’ve written twice before about Private William Eagle, who enlisted into the 8th Virginia late in 1777 and joined at Valley Forge just before the two-year enlistments of the original men expired. He was evidently just 16 years old. He was the son of very early settlers of Pendleton County, West Virginia’s remote Smoke Hole Canyon and returned there after the war.
 
He was buried in the beautiful canyon facing a remarkably vertical rock formation that now carries his name: Eagle Rock. Over the years Smoke Hole Canyon became a pocket of Unionism in a region of otherwise intensely pro-Confederate sentiment, a haven for moonshiners, and eventually part of the Monongahela National Forest. His grave, perhaps not permanently marked, was lost for many years until discovered by Forest Service surveyors about 1930 when a new stone was set in the ground.
 
Photos of the spot on the internet show a pretty and bucolic setting. The stone sits under a sycamore tree and appears well-attended with a crisp and clean American flag. Returning recently from a family vacation, however, I stopped by the site and discovered that it looks nothing like those images. In mid-January the stone was half-buried in frozen debris at the end of a virtual river of ice descending from the ridge of North Fork Mountain. The base of the sycamore’s trunk is rotting. It looks as though an impromptu hiking trail has become a path for water runoff. On a 20-degree day following two days of rain, Private Eagle’s grave was covered by forest debris that had washed down the mountain. Attempts to clear it were fruitless. It was frozen solid.
 
Perhaps this is a purely seasonal phenomenon, but a Revolutionary War veteran’s grave deserves better care. It appears to me that thoughtless hikers are the culprits. Someone—the Forest Service, Pendleton County, neighbors, a Boy Scout looking for an Eagle Scout project, the DAR or the SAR—should find a way to protect the grave from what seems like inevitable serious damage.

5 Comments
Mark Skiles
1/26/2019 05:22:22 pm

I live an hour away, I will help clean it up when weather breaks, who will join me.

Reply
Mark Wayne
1/26/2019 06:54:38 pm

Thank you Mark Skiles! I appreciate that.

Reply
Gabe Neville
1/26/2019 07:15:53 pm

I'll join. We might need to check with the National Forest Service because I suspect this is more than just a clean up. Might need to get that trail rerouted (if that's what it is). I'll figure out how to ask.

Reply
Michael Gray link
6/18/2020 03:47:00 pm

Sir,

My name is Mike Gray, and I'm a resident of Franklin, WV, formerly of Smoke Hole Canyon. I'm co-founder of the Friends of Smoke Hole, a local, independent volunteer organization that cleans up the roads and rivers of Smoke Hole and Reed Creek, and maintains trails to climbing and hiking areas, as well as tending to William's grave.

The ice flow you saw followed a period of snow and freezing rain, and its path was down a game trail, not a hiking trail. I was as dismayed as anyone by the event when I drove by the day after it happened.

As soon as humanly possible, when the ice thawed, I returned and spent half a day raking and shovelling away the debris. We replaced the flags at that time but they need to be replaced again, which I hope to do this weekend, certainly before July 4th.

My wife and I make every effort to keep fresh flags and sometimes flowers on William's grave and that of his wife, who is buried on the opposite side of the tree.

She is disabled and I work as a cook locally, but we can always find enough extra to preserve our country's heritage and honor such a hero.

As the son of a veteran who has since taken off on his final flight, this is my duty as a citizen, my pleasure as a steward of the Canyon, and my honor as a proud adopted son of West Virginia and Smoke Hole.

If anyone ever has concerns regarding the condition of Wm. Eagle's grave, please do not hesitate to contact me via email: wvmgray@gmail.com

Thank you, and God Bless.

Montani Semper Liberi,

MG

Reply
Gabe Neville link
12/25/2020 06:31:54 pm

Mike--

Thanks so much for taking care of the grave. It's a special spot.

Gabe

Reply



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    Gabriel Neville

    is researching the history of the Revolutionary War's 8th Virginia Regiment. Its ten companies formed on the frontier, from the Cumberland Gap to Pittsburgh.

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