Berkeley County transforms Civil War battlefield into historic park

The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation is partnering with Berkeley County government to create a new battlefield park in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia was the scene of fierce military conflicts during the Civil War. But anyone driving through the region today will hardly recognize any historical sites.

Over the years, local preservation groups have worked to erect markers and monuments at Civil War sites to raise awareness of the history hidden there.

Now a preservation group is working with local government to create Berkeley County’s first battlefield park and preserve the site for years to come.

Keven Walker is CEO of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, a Virginia-based nonprofit that is leading the construction of the park. The park will be built on 10 acres of land where the Battle of Hoke’s Run took place.

“There will be all the visitor amenities you would expect at a state park,” he said. “There will be restrooms here, parking. There will be a pavilion here. There will be an outdoor learning area for youth.”

According to Gary Gimbel, president of the Falling Waters Battlefield Association, the 1861 battle was the first Civil War conflict in the Shenandoah Valley.

“They had never crossed the border into West Virginia before,” he said. “This is the very first time.”

Gimbel’s group works to preserve and interpret the history of the Falling Waters Battlefield, which is near the Hoke’s Run site and on the West Virginia-Maryland border.

The new park will also feature an “interpretive and recreational trail” that will connect to the history of the battlefield, according to Walker.

“Through outdoor exhibitions, panels and explanatory signs, you will be confronted with the history of the place first hand,” he said.

Gimbel said using the park as an opportunity to raise awareness of West Virginia’s Civil War history in this way is a “big deal” for local Civil War buffs and the community as a whole.

The historic element of the park provides an opportunity to tell residents, ‘Look, something happened here,’” Gimbel said.

“This is not just a place to live. There is actually history here that you probably don’t know about and we want to explain it to you,” he continued. “The idea is to combine education with this park.”

The announcement of the new park comes at a time when counties in the Eastern Panhandle are grappling with new developments.

According to a 2016 survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, West Virginia has the third-highest percentage of forest cover among the fifty states.

But the Eastern Panhandle is one of the few regions in the state that has seen a population increase in the past year, and some residents worry that the rate of development could threaten their access to the green spaces that make West Virginia so homely.

Berkeley County Commissioner Steve Catlett says counties in the Eastern Panhandle need to plan ahead, which makes creating new outdoor recreation areas like Battlefield Park all the more important.

“We are growing too fast and our infrastructure can’t keep up. As we build more and more housing and more and more development, we need to provide more space for public recreation and parks,” he said. “People can go out and enjoy their well-being … (and) be outdoors.”

Walker said his organization hopes the park can provide more than just an educational opportunity or a new outdoor venue.

Given political divisions, this leads to a sense of distance between people. He said that engaging with American history and examining our place in it can help overcome barriers to mutual understanding.

“We are constantly told that our history should divide us, but that is simply not the case,” he said. “Our history should bring us together as a people, remind us of the struggles of generations past and give us inspiration and strength for the struggles of our time.”

Walker said his organization hopes to complete construction this fall and open the park to the public in 2025. After that, he’s excited to see how members of the local community engage with the history around them.

“These small, quiet oases of history, these battlefield parks, these outdoor classrooms are places where all this commemoration can take place,” he said.