Qualla: Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WVhybrid at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. By the late 1990s, Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park had a problem: the modest campground, marina, and offices that the state had built around the new Army Corps reservoir in 1990 could not generate enough revenue to service the $28 million in construction debt the Corps was owed. Closing the park was politically impossible. Paying the debt was financially impossible. Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia found a way out of the box: federal legislation forgiving the debt if the state invested an equivalent amount in improving the park. The state, in turn, partnered with a private developer who sold $44 million in bonds, hired Arnold Palmer to design a golf course, and built a 191-room lodge with a full-service spa. The campground and marina from 1990 are still there. So is the lake. Around them now is one of the most fully realized resort developments in any state park system in the country.

Image: WVhybrid at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park: The Dam and the Reservoir

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WVhybrid at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. Stonewall Jackson Lake itself is an Army Corps of Engineers impoundment of the West Fork River, completed in 1988 primarily for flood control. The West Fork rises in central West Virginia and flows north to join the Tygart Valley River at Fairmont, forming the Monongahela; before...

Image: WVhybrid at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park: The Byrd Solution

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WVhybrid at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. Robert Byrd represented West Virginia in the Senate for fifty-one years, longer than any other senator in American history, and during that time he became famous for his ability to direct federal dollars and federal solutions to his home state. The Stonewall debt was a textbook B...

Image: WVhybrid at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park: The Public-Private Deal

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WVhybrid at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. The state's solution was to find a private partner. McCabe-Henley Properties of Charleston agreed to develop a full-service resort on the park grounds. Through a bond-issuing arrangement, McCabe-Henley raised $44 million from private investors; the state contributed $10 million; ...

Image: WVhybrid at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park: Arnold Palmer Designs a Course

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WVhybrid at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. The headline amenity is the Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course, designed by Palmer himself and routed across the wooded ridges overlooking the reservoir. It opened in 2002 and was named the second-best new course in America by Golf Digest in 2003, the number-eight new course of ...

Image: WVhybrid at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park: Everything in One Place

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WVhybrid at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. The resort is what marketing language calls a destination. There are three restaurants - Stillwaters, TJ Muskies, and Lightburns - all named for local references; the 18-hole golf course and driving range; sixteen conference rooms totaling 15,000 square feet; an indoor and an out...

Image: WVhybrid at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5