Qualla: Buckhannon

Buckhannon: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The name itself is a mispronunciation. Buckongahelas was a chief of the Lenni-Lenape - sometimes called Delaware - whose hunting territory extended into the valley of what is now the Buckhannon River, and whose name, in the mouths of English-speaking settlers in the early 1800s, came out something closer to 'Buckhannon.' When the settlement was incorporated in 1816, the misheard version stuck. It became the river, then the town, then the river's smaller tributary, and finally the county seat of Upshur County - a city of about 5,700 people on US-33 between Weston and Elkins. The chief himself died in 1805, before the town was named for him.

Read more: Buckhannon on Qualla

Buckhannon: Buckongahelas

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Buckongahelas was a real and historically significant figure - a war leader of the Lenape during the conflicts of the late eighteenth century, signatory of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, and one of the more skilled diplomats among the Native nations of the Ohio Valley. He led Len...

Read more: Buckhannon on Qualla

Buckhannon: On US-33

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Modern Buckhannon sits at a crossroads. US-33 carries traffic east-west through town between Weston (twenty minutes west) and Elkins (thirty minutes east). North of town, US-119 connects to I-79 at Clarksburg, forty minutes away. South of town, less-traveled roads climb up into t...

Read more: Buckhannon on Qualla

Buckhannon: West Virginia Wesleyan College

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Buckhannon is also a college town. West Virginia Wesleyan College, a private liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church, sits on a campus on the north side of town and enrolls about 1,200 students. The college was founded in 1890 and is one of the older ...

Read more: Buckhannon on Qualla

Buckhannon: The Strawberry Festival

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Every May, Buckhannon hosts the West Virginia Strawberry Festival, a multi-day civic celebration that began in 1936 and now draws crowds that briefly multiply the city's population several times over. There is a coronation of a Strawberry Queen, parades, a strawberry shortcake fe...

Read more: Buckhannon on Qualla

Buckhannon: A Small City, Confidently Itself

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Buckhannon is small enough to walk across in twenty minutes and substantial enough to support a downtown movie theater, a local newspaper (the Buckhannon Record-Delta), a hospital, an opera house, and the working machinery of a county seat. The river that gave the town its name c...

Read more: Buckhannon on Qualla