White Grass Ski Touring Center in Canaan Valley , W.Va., is celebrated for its unusually curvy and hilly cross-country skiing terrain.Chris Jackson for NPR hide caption DAVIS, W.Va.
— Stretching nearly a million acres through the rugged mountains of eastern West Virginia, the Monongahela National Forest links some of the state's best known natural attractions.The vast area ranges from the ski slopes of Canaan Valley to the dark skies of Blackwater Falls and Spruce Knob and includes the small towns of Davis and Thomas that serve as gateways for visitors to the region.For the past seven months, Kaleb Skelton, his wife, Ella, their 2-year-old son, Ryder, and dog Mabel have lived in a camper in this corner of West Virginia's "almost heaven." Kaleb is finishing a seasonal stint as a campground manager on a lake near Spruce Knob, the state's highest point.On clear nights atop the isolated peak, they get to experience a river of stars in one of the very few pockets of darkness remaining in the Eastern United States.
The area has become a draw for amateur astronomers.During summer's new moons, Kaleb says, one in four campsites he oversees is occupied by someone with a telescope.He thought his family's cabin in eastern Texas offered "the craziest" dark skies he'd ever seen, "but coming out here definitely rivals it."Those inky-black nights — and the natural beauty they shelter — are now under threat from what many residents see as a modern-day version of extractive industries like logging and mining that once defined the region.
In a place where tourism, outdoor recreation and community are deeply intertwined, a gigantic power plant and data center campus in nearby Tucker County would bring large-scale development into the heart of it all.A stark image of the town of Davis from 1885, during the heyday of logging, is a reminder of that transform...