A Stroll Back in Time: Cathedral State Park
by Mike Powell and Ed Rehbein Around 1600, in London, England, Shakespeare�s Hamlet was performed for the first time. In that same era, Capt. John Smith established a settlement called Jamestown in what is now Virginia, and the Pilgrims, after a three-month voyage on the Mayflower, landed at Plymouth Rock. And in the remote mountains of what would become Preston County, West Virginia, a plot of hemlock seedlings began to sprout. Shakespeare, Capt. Smith, and the Pilgrims have long since passed from this earth. But 400 years later, those hemlock seedlings are still alive, having grown to be trees of great size. Today, walking through the ancient, storied halls of what is now Cathedral State Park is like taking a stroll back in time. Cathedral State Park The opportunity to walk among trees that were living before European settlement is a rare experience in the eastern United States. Old-growth, or virgin, forests are perhaps the rarest forest type in the region. Even in West Virginia, a ...