Qualla: Watoga State Park https://qualla.com/watoga-state-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/0/watoga-state-park-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Watoga State Park https://qualla.com/watoga-state-park Watoga State Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/watoga-state-park/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.5. The name means "starry waters" in Cherokee, and the park has finally caught up with its name. In the 21st century, the International Dark-Sky Association certified Watoga State Park as one of the few places in the eastern United States where the Milky Way is still routinely visible to the naked eye - a darkness rare enough on this side of the Mississippi to be worth driving for. The Cherokee who named the place would have taken that darkness for granted. The Pocahontas County visitors who come today drive up the West Virginia mountain roads precisely because they cannot find it where they live.

Read more: Watoga State Park on Qualla

Image: CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/0/watoga-state-park-wp/dnz0-watoga-state-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Watoga State Park: From Forest Plan to State Park https://qualla.com/watoga-state-park/ Photo credit Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. The land that forms the heart of Watoga was first acquired in January 1925, with the intention of making it a state forest - a working timber reserve. By May 1934, the plan had changed. The deep ridges and hollows around Two Mile Run looked more like recreation than logging count...

Read more: Watoga State Park on Qualla

Image: Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/0/watoga-state-park-wp/dnz0-watoga-state-park-from-forest-plan-to-state-park.mp3 0:06 2 full Watoga State Park: The CCC Built It https://qualla.com/watoga-state-park/ Photo credit Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. Most of what visitors see at Watoga today was built between 1933 and 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Roosevelt's New Deal program had put young, mostly unemployed men into uniformed work camps across the country, and West Virginia got more than its share of camps because...

Read more: Watoga State Park on Qualla

Image: Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/0/watoga-state-park-wp/dnz0-watoga-state-park-the-ccc-built-it.mp3 0:06 3 full Watoga State Park: The Brooks Arboretum https://qualla.com/watoga-state-park/ Photo credit Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. Within the park lies the Fred E. Brooks Memorial Arboretum, a 400-acre tract that encompasses the drainage of Two Mile Run. Brooks was a noted West Virginia naturalist who died in 1933 - one of the entomologists and botanists who had cataloged the Appalachian biota in the days be...

Read more: Watoga State Park on Qualla

Image: Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/0/watoga-state-park-wp/dnz0-watoga-state-park-the-brooks-arboretum.mp3 0:06 4 full Watoga State Park: Trails, Stars, and the Historic District https://qualla.com/watoga-state-park/ Photo credit Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. Watoga's trail network has grown into the kind of system that takes a foundation to maintain. The Watoga Foundation looks after the Allegheny Trail, the Ann Bailey Trail, Arrowhead, Bearpen, Buck and Doe, Burnside Ridge, Honeymoon, Jesse's Cove, Kennison Run, the Lake Trail, Mono...

Read more: Watoga State Park on Qualla

Image: Brian M. Powell (user Bitmapped on en.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/0/watoga-state-park-wp/dnz0-watoga-state-park-trails-stars-and-the-historic-district.mp3 0:06 5 full