Qualla: Cathedral State Park

Cathedral State Park: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris M Morris, CC BY 2.0. Almost every acre of West Virginia was clear-cut in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The white pine, the eastern hemlock, the red spruce - whole forests came down to feed the lumber market and the steel mills. By 1920, virtually no virgin timber remained anywhere in the state. There was one exception. Branson Haas, a workman at the nearby Brookside hotel, bought a small tract of forest in 1922 and would not allow the trees on his property to be cut. The hemlocks he protected grew up to 90 feet tall and 21 feet in circumference. When Haas sold his land to the state of West Virginia in 1942, the tract became Cathedral State Park - the largest remaining virgin timber stand in the entire state.

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Image: Chris M Morris | CC BY 2.0

Cathedral State Park: What 'Cathedral' Means

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. Walking into Cathedral State Park is like walking into a building made of wood. The hemlocks rise up to 90 feet straight overhead, their trunks columnar and largely branch-free for the first 40 or 50 feet. The canopy meets in a green dim vault. Rhine Creek runs through the park a...

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Image: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) | CC BY-SA 2.5

Cathedral State Park: Haas, the Hotel Handyman

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. Branson Haas worked at the Brookside hotel in Aurora, West Virginia. The hotel was a destination for visitors to the cool Allegheny highlands - a fashionable Gilded Age resort that hosted travelers seeking summer relief from the lowland heat. When Haas purchased the land in 1922,...

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Image: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) | CC BY-SA 2.5

Cathedral State Park: The Woolly Adelgid Threat

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sharp-shinned.hawk, CC BY-SA 4.0. What survived the loggers may not survive the insects. The hemlock woolly adelgid - Adelges tsugae, a tiny aphid-like pest accidentally introduced to North America from East Asia in the early twentieth century - has devastated eastern hemlock forests across the Appalachians. The ...

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Image: Sharp-shinned.hawk | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cathedral State Park: Lightning, Snow, and Hurricane Sandy

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. Even before the woolly adelgid, the trees have taken hits. In 2004, the state's largest hemlock - the centerpiece of the park - was felled by lightning. Old, tall trees are inherent lightning rods on the Allegheny ridges. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy crossed New Jersey and pu...

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Image: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) | CC BY-SA 2.5