March 2007 - Friends of Blackwater Canyon

March 2007 March 2007
Blackwater Heritage
In Memory and Honor...
Honoring those that went before us and preserving what they left behind in this magnificent mountain landscape.
Treasured Mountain Memories
For someone who
grew up in the Guyandotte
Valley, and
roamed the ridges
along its river, looking
down upon Canaan
Valley, was a sight to
behold.
Gosh, was my first
expression. My little
sister, standing beside
me, had not spoken.
It took her some time
to make a sound. “I
didn’t know, West
Virginia was this
beautiful”, finally she
managed to say. I
agreed, as we stood
there taking in, all
below us.
We had spent 7
hours driving in my
old 1947 Chevy. And
other than stopping
for gas, this the first
stop to look around.
Driving across the
valley floor, you sure
couldn’t tell, that the
view would look
anything like this. I
was thinking, this looks
more like what you
would seen on
Television, when they
show some movie
scenery. In the next
year, I would come to
know the land, like the
back of my hand.
Before school started,
I made friends with
several of the boys,
that were growing up in
Davis. Soon they were
taking me, on the old
jeep roads, that their
dads had shown them,
while
going deer hunting. The
old jeep roads winding
around
Canaan Valley floor
were something else.
Beavers seemed to
think, ah a road, I will
build a dam here. Most
of the old jeep roads
were under water
because of the
beavers. It didn’t do
the Game Officers any
good, to tear them
down. The beaver was
back building his dam,
the next day.
I spent the days
before school, learning
the lay of the land,
and it was mighty easy
to get lost with no
fence on the land. My
“I heard of the efforts of some, to destroy what Mother Nature had so
graciously made for mankind to enjoy, the news brought tears to my heart.”
Who is Shadowcloud?
Shadowcloud is Randell Midkiff, who describes himself as growing
up in the town of Pleasant View in Lincoln County. He says
Pleasant View was a small town, home to Guyan Valley High
School; a town without a sidewalk. He went to Davis in 1964 to
visit his father who was a Union Boilermaker Construction worker
and stayed. As he so beautifully stated, “I fell in love with pure
Mountain country, its beauty, uncluttered with mankind.” He tells
me that in 1966 he left Davis to join the Navy where he learned that
oceans can have mountains, too. Bless you Shadowcloud, for you
possess the heart of a warrior and the soul of a poet.
encounter with my
first Black Bear, was
for me to look at him,
him to look at me, and
each of us took off in
different directions.
Canaan Valley was like
a treasure chest, over
each hill, a different
lay of the land.
Standing up on the
Mountain and
looking down on the
By Shadowcloud
valley, it all looked flat,
but that, sure wasn’t
the way it was, once
you started walking it.
Phooey, you needed to
be a mountain goat to
get around down there.
There were plenty of
little hills, “flat lander
hills”, my new friends
called them. Most of
them had never been
anywhere other than
Davis or Thomas. So
to them, the hills that
were in Canaan Valley
were just “flat
lander hills”. They were
used to the Mountains
around them.
They showed me my
first view of
Blackwater Falls, and
soon thereafter were
taking me on trails,
their dads had taken
them on, trails that led
you around the winding
canyon of the Blackwater
River. It was
wild untamed land,
with laurel so thick you
could not crawl thru it,
so you had to take a
longer way around, to
get where you wanted
to go. And the word
go, meant adventure
to me.
Its been only a year
or two since I drove
up to Davis. I took my
daughter and Mother
to Blackwater Falls
for a Sunday Drive. I
wanted to show my
daughter the most
beautiful place I had
ever been, which
included four years
in the Navy, traveling
overseas four times.
To me, Canaan Valley,
and Blackwater Falls,
were the prettiest
places I had seen. Not
too awful long ago, I
heard of the efforts of
some, to destroy what
Mother Nature had so
graciously made for
mankind to enjoy, the
news brought tears to
my heart.
george breiding 1917 - 2007
West Virginian, Naturalist, Educator................Inspiration
George Breiding, 89, Naturalist and teacher, died
peacefully at his home in Morgantown on Feb 02,
2007. He remained alert, active and busy until his
final moments.
George was born in Wheeling, WV on August 11,
1917. At an early age he developed a love for the
outdoors. He became deeply interested in nature
study, wildlife and resource conservation, and in
particular, ornithology, the study of birds. This interest
was to last a lifetime and he shared it with all those
he met.
George at Lowry Field in 1943.
He graduated from
Central Catholic High
School in Wheeling and
went on to serve as a
Sergeant in the Army Air
Force from 1941 to 1943
at Lowry Field, Colorado.
He attended the
University of Denver in
1941-42 and graduated
from Ohio State
University in 1948 with
a BS in Wildlife Conservation.
He went on to work for the Ohio Division of
Conservation and the National Park Service.
From 1950 to 1963 George held the position of
PASSING OF A PIONEER by J. Lawrence Smith
Director of Nature Education and Naturalist at Oglebay
Institute Nature Department, Oglebay Park, in
Wheeling. During that period he also wrote a weekly
nature column in the Wheeling Intelligencer and
participated in nature education oriented local radio
broadcasts. He was also published in the ornithology
journals The Auk and The Wilson Bulletin and popular
publications such as Wonderful West Virginia
Magazine and Bird Watchers Digest
In 1963 he accepted a position as State Program
Leader for Outdoor Recreation with the WVU Extension
Service in Morgantown. He retired in 1979.
In his lifelong pursuit of furthering his nature
education, George travelled widely. He explored 49 of
the 50 states and travelled to Africa, Australia, Costa
Rica, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Galapagos Islands.
George used his constantly expanding knowledge to
educate others about the world of nature, wildlife and
resource conservation. His lifelong teaching passion
was evangelical in scope, longevity and importance
and he touched the lives of thousands of people
while spreading the gospel of loving,
understanding and appreciating the world of nature.
In his memory a scholarship fund is being
established for Oglebay Institute’s Junior Nature
Camp.
George atop Dorsey Knob in 2006.
Donations in honor of George Breiding’s
memory should be sent to:
With the recent death of George Breiding, West Virginia lost a native son who was an interpreter, defender and protector
of the rich natural heritage of our state. George was a member of the Friends of Blackwater for many years.
Oglebay Institute
George Breiding Scholarship Fund
1330 National Road
Wheeling, WV 26003
I met George in 1957 when I was in high school and he presented a slide program at a meeting of the Brooks Bird Club in
Charleston. Among the slides were one of prickly pear cactus and a nest of Long-eared Owls. I couldn’t wait to see cactus
growing wild in West Virginia and search for owls!
Submitted by Mike Breiding
George’s excitement about birds and wildlife was contagious and many persons came under his tutelage when he was Naturalist
and responsible for nature education at Oglebay Park at Wheeling for many years. As a youth, George was inspired by Naturalist A. B. Brooks
at Oglebay and became active in the Brooks Bird Club in its early days.
He was among the early observers to define the distribution of Swainson’s Warbler in the central Appalachians. In 1944, he discovered the bird on
lower slopes of Big Black Mountain in Kentucky. I envied him for his observations of the hybrid offspring of the Golden-winged and Blue-winged
Warbler. On a tract of brushland he owned near Wadestown, Monongalia County, he had the good fortune of finding, on a number of occasions, both
the Brewster’s and Lawrence’s Warbler.
Rare are persons such as George who can not only communicate the wonders of nature, but inspire “disciples” as well. West Virginia was made
richer with his life lived among the mountains and we are now poorer with his passing.
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