Qualla: Fayetteville, West Virginia

Fayetteville, West Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Until 2001, you could walk into the Fayetteville airport, find a pilot named Five Dollar Frank Thomas leaning against his Cessna 172, hand him a single bill, and he would take you up over the New River Gorge for a tour. The price had earned him his nickname long before inflation made the deal absurd. Frank is gone now, and so is the five-dollar ride, but the town that produced him is still the same town: a 2,800-person Appalachian county seat on the plateau above one of the most spectacular gorges in eastern North America. People call Fayetteville the Gateway to the New River Gorge for good reason. Almost everything that draws visitors to this stretch of West Virginia starts here.

Fayetteville, West Virginia: Vandalia, Once

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The town that became Fayetteville was first called Vandalia, an old American settlement-era name borrowed from a never-realized colonial colony. The community sat on the plateau where the New River carved its deepest canyon, but for years it was just a few homes among the trees. ...

Fayetteville, West Virginia: The Bridge and the Gorge

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The New River Gorge Bridge opened on October 22, 1977, and instantly became one of the great engineering landmarks of the Appalachians. At 3,030 feet long with an arch span of 1,700 feet, it was the longest single-arch steel-span bridge in the world until the Lupu Bridge opened i...

Fayetteville, West Virginia: What There Is to Do

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The New River, despite its name, is geologically among the oldest rivers on Earth, predating the Appalachians it now cuts through. Its rapids - and those of the wilder Gauley River nearby - have made Fayetteville one of the most important whitewater rafting hubs in the eastern Un...

Fayetteville, West Virginia: A Town That Lives on the Gorge

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Most of what visitors to Fayetteville do happens within a five-mile radius of the courthouse. The historic downtown - listed on the National Register since 1990 - holds the visitors' bureau, in the old Fayette Jail building at 306 North Court Street. Guided walking tours through ...