National Scenic Byways Program

Camp Allegheny, on both sides of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike at the Top of Allegheny Mountain, was a Confederate fortification. In December 1861, Union troops from Cheat Summit Fort attacked from two flanks, but were repelled. The Southern troops spent a bitter winter, then retreated to the Shenandoah Valley in the spring. This pristine site has visible earthworks and chimney stones marking cabin locations. Partly National Forest, it has interpretive signs, parking area, and picnic table.

Traveling from Staunton, the original beginning of the turnpike, you enter the byway at the Virginia / West Virginia state line on the top of Allegheny Mountain, and travel across West Virginia to Parkersburg on the Ohio River. Visit this pristine Civil War fortification that illustrates the remoteness of the territory and extreme challenges faced by soldiers in this first winter of the war. Read the interpretive signs, then view the landscape while hiking through the earthworks and see the chimney falls marking soldiers' cabins. Driving this gravel road from Camp Allegheny to Camp Bartow gives the closest experience to the original turnpike. You are driving on the original route, with a minimum of modern intrusions. Imagine that you are in a wagon, passing small homesteads scattered between the deep forest. Summer or fall are the best times, winter and early spring the road might not be passable.

National Scenic Byways Program
http://www.bywaysonline.org/inventory/byways/10351