2009: Pipestem, West Virginia
Eastern Historical Geography Association Joint Conference 2009
Pipestem Resort State Park in Pipestem, West Virginia
October 29-31, 2009
View a map of Pipestem Resort State Park
Meet the 2009 Award Winners
See the Photos from the Meeting
Original Conference Information
The Pioneer America Society will hold its 41st annual conference at Pipestem Resort Park, the “Year-round Crown Jewel of West Virginia State Parks,” in Pipestem, WV, on October 29-31, 2009. The conference will begin on Thursday, October 29, with registration and a reception, papers will be presented on Friday, while Saturday will be devoted to a day-long field trip.
Pipestem Resort Park is a fully modern facility that includes a nature center, hiking trails, horse stables, tennis and golf. Rooms have been reserved in the McKeever Lodge, where standard hotel amenities exist. The conference rate for a single or double room is $79. Please call the hotel directly (304-466-1800), identifying yourself as a participant in the PAS conference, to make your reservations. Pipestem will hold the rooms only until September 28, so please make your reservations EARLY. There are NO alternative hotels nearby; the closest accommodations are in Princeton, 20 miles away.
Like the recent Baton Rouge meting, this conference will be held in conjunction with the Eastern Historical Geographers Association (EHGA). We hope that our mutual interests in the impact of historical processes on the landscape will be an incentive to attend this meeting in such a fascinating region.
The 2009 conference theme is Heritage Preservation in Appalachia, but as always, papers on other topics of interest to the members of each organization are welcome. The conference committee will solicit proposals for papers and special sessions relating to the conference theme in early 2009. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is September 1, 2009.
The Saturday field trip will explore largely abandoned landscapes of coal mining, and examine efforts -- successful or otherwise-- to preserve the heritage of the Pocahontas coal field. While coal mining continues, the region is depressed economically and population continues to decline. In response to this dilemma, the West Virginia Legislature has created the National Coal Heritage Area Authority to preserve and interpret the rich cultural heritage of mining in southern West Virginia. The field trip will include a tour of the Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine, a National Historic Landmark, that was the first mine in the Pocahontas field, as well as a walking tour of the town. Lunch will be provided at the Bramwell Cafe, followed by a guided tour of Bramwell, where more than a dozen coal barons once made their homes. The afternoon will be spent exploring Carswell, with its company store and still occupied houses, the restored Kimball World War Memorial, the first and only remaining in the country built to honor African-American veterans, and Vivian, a once proud mining community whose derelict company store and school provide a hint of better times in the past.
For further information, contact
Dawn S. Bowen,
Department of Geography
University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
540/654-1491
