Product Code Database
Seneca Rocks is a large cliff and local landmark in Pendleton County in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, United States. The south peak is the only peak inaccessible except by technical rock climbing techniques on the East Coast of the United States. One of the best-known scenic attractions in West Virginia, the sheer rock faces are a popular challenge for rock climbing.
Seneca Rocks is easily visible from and accessible by way of West Virginia Route 28, West Virginia Route 55 and U.S. Route 33 in the Spruce Knob–Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area of the Monongahela National Forest. The three highways converge in the hamlet of Seneca Rocks, which is named for the cliffs nearby.
The first European visitors to see the region were surveyors who Fairfax Line, and the first settlers arrived at Mouth of Seneca fifteen years later. At that time, West Virginia (or western Virginia as it was then) was at the edge of the great wilderness. The Rocks were visited and sketched by the well-known writer and magazine illustrator David Hunter Strother (known by his pseudonym "Porte Crayon") around 1853. His sketches were reworked and published two decades later as a popular wood engraving in an 1872 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. (see image left).
It is unknown who the first person was to climb Seneca Rocks. Undoubtedly Native Americans scaled the rocks before European settlers reaching the area, but there is no record of their ascents. The historic ascent of Paul Bradt, Don Hubbard, and Sam Moore in 1939 found an inscription of "D.B. September 16, 1908." This has been attributed to a surveyor named Bittenger who was known to be working in the area.
The documented climbing history of the Rocks begins in 1935 with a roped descent - the ascent was a steep hike – of the North Peak by Paul Bradt and Florence Perry. In the 1930s and 1940s only a few climbers, mostly from the Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh areas, attempted to climb Seneca Rocks.
In 1943 and 1944, as part of the West Virginia Maneuver Area, the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army used Seneca, Nelson Rocks and Champe Rocks Rocks to train mountain troops in assault climbing in preparation for action in the Apennines of Italy. They left behind an estimated 75,000 soft iron , some of which can still be found on the rocks, and which inspired one of the faces to be named "The Face of a Thousand Pitons". Many of those pitons were retrieved and reused by local climbers in the following years, but many remained in the rock for decades.
The Spruce Knob–Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area (NRA) was established within the Monongahela National Forest by an act of the U.S. Congress on September 28, 1965. The Rocks themselves were purchased by the federal government in 1969 from the heirs of D. C. Harper.
The original visitor center was opened in 1978 and constructed on a grant of $297,000. "Grant County Press", 1970-7-1, Retrieved from Google news scan on 2009-1-10. A 1985 flood severely damaged the facility. On October 22, 1987, "the Gendarme", an isolated and prominent pinnacle of the Rocks, fell to the ground.RobSC "The Gendarme", summitpost.org, 2008-1-16. Retrieved on 2009-1-7.Baker, Donald P. "Famed W.Va. Rock Takes Tumble After 440 Million Years", The Washington Post, October 29, 1987. Retrieved on 2009-1-10. On May 26, 1992, the visitor center was destroyed by arson. "The Glenville Democrat", 1992-6-11, Retrieved from Google news scan on 2009-1-10. "The Glenville Democrat", 1992-9-10, Retrieved from Google news scan on 2009-1-10. The current visitor center — known as the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center — was completed in the fall of 1998 on a 5 million dollar grant. "Seneca Rocks New Discovery Center Opens", "wamonline.com", retrieved on 2009-1-10.
The "Seneca Rock" turnpoint at has been used by glider pilots for gliding competitions and soaring awards because its distinctive appearance in aerial photographs made it suitable for photo documentation of the flight performance. This turnpoint was used on many 500-kilometer out-and-return course flights from Ridge Soaring Gliderport in Julian, Pennsylvania, including an October 15, 1995, flight by Canadians pilot Walter Weir that was recognized as a world record at the time.
Both the East and West faces of the North and South Peak offer single and multi-pitch routes up to 300 ft in length. Technical routes also exist on the Lower Slabs, located on the slopes below the west face of the North Peak, and on the Southern Pillar, directly across Roy Gap from the South Peak. Because of the way the rock was uplifted, many vertical cracks offer excellent jamming and good protection. Routes range from 5.0 to 5.14, nearly all of which require the leader to place protection (trad climbing). The South Peak is the tallest peak east of Devils Tower in Wyoming and is only accessible by 5th-class climbing.
Princess Snow Bird, who had grown to maidenhood in the shadow of the rocks and scaled their heights many times, proposed a contest to her father, Chief Bald Eagle. She would climb to the crest of the rocks as prospective suitors followed. The first to take her hand would become her mate. Bald Eagle agreed, and at the end of the climb, of seven suitors, only one remained, the others having turned back from fear or fallen to their deaths. From their lofty perch, Snow Bird and her future mate surveyed the surrounding realm of the Seneca that would be theirs to rule one day.
In reality, the Seneca homeland was in what is now western New York state, and what Seneca tribesmen passed this way were strictly transients. (The historical "Chief Bald Eagle" d., also known as Chief Woapalanne, was a Lenape leader of central Pennsylvania, not a Seneca of West Virginia.)
|
|
