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Cathedral State Park LbNA #17652

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Aug 18, 2005
Location:
City:Aurora
County:Preston
State:West Virginia
Boxes:1
Planted by:Early Bird
Found by: The3Bears
Last found:Oct 9, 2011
Status:FFaFFFaaa
Last edited:Nov 18, 2015
Clues updated May 2008. Fixed the error from the park map.

Cathedral State Park is a 133 acre virgin hemlock forest. It is one of the last patches of virgin forest in West Virginia, which was almost completely deforested in a couple of decades around 1900. In this park, trees up to 90 feet in height and 21 feet in circumference form dense cloisters. Throughout the woods, eastern hemlock is the dominant species. Although they aren’t redwoods, the trees are very impressive for the east, and give some idea of what all of the Appalachian region must have looked like hundreds of years ago.

The forest in the park is not homogeneous at all, however. The largest trees occur in several clumps spaced throughout the park. In many areas the canopy is quite open, allowing lots of deciduous trees to grow, while in others the hemlocks are thick enough to make the forest floor dark and thick with fallen needles. Our first reaction was that the open spots, and the many fallen hemlocks, were caused by the hemlock wooly adelgid, a pest which was introduced from Asia in 1924 and which has devastated some eastern evergreen forests. But the park superintendent told us that while the pest is present, it has not done a large amount of damage - yet. Information available on the internet seems to confirm this. But go now if you want to see the hemlocks. The adelgid was first detected in this county in 2002, and one biologist cited in an internet source said this park could look very different in ten years.

Park in the main parking lot, and follow the trail into the woods and to the left past the picnic pavilion. When you get to the trail intersection, bear right on the Cathedral Trail. At the fork, bear left to remain on the Cathedral Trail, and then right at the next intersection, following the sign for the Partridge Berry Trail. (The park map is a bit confusing here, but the signs are correct.) You will cross two small footbridges and then come to the intersection with the Giant Hemlock Trail. From the sign, take 65 steps farther down the trail you are already on. To your left, about fifty feet back in the forest, is a large hemlock. At 230 degrees from this hemlock, and about twenty feet away, is a smaller hemlock with two trunks, one of which is broken off. The Cathedral Letterbox is in a hollow at the base of this tree.

Be sure to see the Centennial Hemlock, behind the superintendent's residence, before you leave!