Qualla: Moorefield

Moorefield: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. Moorefield is what happens when a valley big enough to grow chickens and cattle in industrial quantities is hidden behind enough mountains to make it almost impossible to reach. For most of its history that was the whole story - a flat green oasis surrounded by ridges, the county seat of Hardy County, a place where you stopped if you happened to be passing through. The four-lane construction of U.S. 48 in the early 2010s changed the calculation. Moorefield is now an hour faster from the interstates than it used to be, and people are starting to notice.

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Image: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

Moorefield: An Oasis of Flat

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jarek Tuszyński (user:Jarekt), CC BY 3.0. Moorefield sits in the very center of an unusually large area of flat ground for the Allegheny region, completely surrounded by rugged mountains. The South Branch Potomac River runs past the town, joined just north by the South Fork, and the bottomland in both valleys is some of ...

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Image: Jarek Tuszyński (user:Jarekt) | CC BY 3.0

Moorefield: Not a Tourist Town (and That Helps)

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0. Unlike Davis to the west on the other side of the Allegheny Front, or Wardensville to the east at the head of Lost River Valley, Moorefield is not a tourist destination. The economy runs on agriculture, and especially on the poultry operations that supply chicken to the broader m...

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Image: Antony-22 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Moorefield: The Highway That Changed Everything

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. U.S. Route 48, often referred to locally as Corridor H, is now a four-lane divided highway running across most of northern West Virginia. It connects Interstate 79 in the west to Interstate 81 near the I-66 junction in the east, with Moorefield sitting near the middle. Much of th...

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

Moorefield: Backcountry on Every Side

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant), CC BY-SA 2.5. From Moorefield almost any direction leads into mountains. Davis sits west across the Allegheny Front, gateway to Canaan Valley, Dolly Sods, and Blackwater Falls. Wardensville lies east at the head of Lost River, which feeds the curious history of Lost River State Park and the Li...

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