The town I grew up in, called Cranesville, is an unincorporated town in the northeast corner of Preston County, West Virginia. [map] During the time I lived there, the population averaged about 25 people. The majority were retirees, with a few farmers, a preacher, and children thrown in.

Cranesville is easy to miss, with only a small highway sign marking the cluster of houses as a town. There is a small general store across the street from my house, which sold canned goods, some eggs an milk, and gas.

Historically, the town was quite a bit larger. Founded by the Crane family in the 1850s, it was described as a “Syracuse of Preston County, with its ‘pretty lawns and gentle meandering streams fringed with whispering pines’” [Historian Betty White quoting historian Samuel Wiley in The Past is a Key to the Future, 1990] At the turn of the 20th century, it boasted a hotel, livery stable, blacksmith, post office, doctor, several stores, and a number of one- and two-room schoolhouses. However, as jobs in the coal and timber industries dried up and some farms failed, the population slowly declined. By 1924, the post office was closed, and the town became unincorporated.

Today, Cranesville is known locally as the coldest and snowiest area in the region. It is not uncommon to find the remnants of a ten-foot snowdrift lingering past Memorial Day. This extreme microclimate is due to

“the elements of wind, water, mountains, and temperature . . . In combination, these climactic elements produce a local natural occurrence known as a “frost pocket,” a low area that collects moisture and cooler temperatures. As weather travels west-to-east across the North American continent, the hills surrounding Cranesville . . . channel precipitation and chilled air into the valley, consistently making Cranesville one of the coolest and soggiest spots in Maryland and West Virginia.” [Nature Conservancy]

This unique climate contributes to the only modest tourist draw in the area. Craneville Swamp is a peat bog that is “a window into ice ages past.” [Nature Conservancy] The habitat and species of the Swamp are typical of the Canadian tundra, with many plants and animals finding their southernmost extent here, separated from their kin by hundreds of miles. Large areas of the swamp and surrounding woodlands are protected by the Nature Conservancy, which offers public hiking trails and a boardwalk. [My own Eagle Scout project was improving the interpretive materials and replacing sections of the boardwalk.] [map]