Craigsville, WV

Craigsville’s place in Nicholas County is tied to a road that moved uphill. The community took its name from James Craig, but its older companion was Beaver, a creekside village built around the 1852 Beaver Mill. The mill used water power to grind local grain, and Beaver once had a post office, general store, schoolhouse, church, blacksmith shops, and homes around the bridge. When the paved road between Summersville and Richwood was built along the ridge, Craigsville grew as the local center; Beaver’s post office and store burned in 1932, and the mail service shifted to Craigsville.

That history gives Craigsville a useful present-day map. Beaver Mill remains on the National Register, with its mill race, water wheels, and period machinery tying the CDP to the rural economy that came before paved highways. Craigsville Public Library opened in 1976 and now serves residents across Nicholas County, while Summersville remains the county seat and the larger county-service center. Craigsville is a mountain community whose story is about local gravity: grain went to the mill, mail followed the road, and the road eventually pulled the county’s everyday center toward Craigsville.