Ansted, WV

Ansted is a Fayette County town of 1,303 residents at the 2020 census, perched along U.S. Route 60 on the Midland Trail. The town was incorporated in 1891 and named for David T. Ansted, the English geologist who recognized the timber and coal wealth in these hills. That name sits right next to a bigger landscape: Ansted is on the rim of the New River Gorge, with Gauley Mountain rising around it and Hawks Nest State Park just outside town.

Hawks Nest gives Ansted an unusually dramatic local outing. The state park has a nature museum, an overlook, hiking trails, a rail trail following an old coal route, and a jet boat ride on the New River. Westlake Cemetery adds a more reflective historical note: Julie Neale Jackson Woodson, the mother of Stonewall Jackson, is buried there with Civil War soldiers. Ansted's story keeps moving between mountain scenery, working rail lines, and the people who stayed. The town's name is still written on the route before the gorge opens below.