Glen Dale, WV

Glen Dale is a Marshall County city along the Ohio River in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle. The 2020 census counted 1,514 residents. Before the late nineteenth century, the area was mostly farmland. In 1890, the Glen Dale Holding Company began buying and subdividing land with the idea of building a residential community for nearby Wheeling. Glen Dale was incorporated in 1924, and its name, originally Glendale, came from the farm of S.A. Cockayne's mother. The river, rail lines, and highways keep the city tied to the wider Wheeling and Moundsville valley.

The Cockayne Farmstead is the clearest window into the older landscape. Built in the 1850s, it was known for Merino wool and now holds local artifacts and documents. Glen Dale also had a long industrial chapter: Louis Marx & Company made toys here from the early 1930s until 1980, and the former plant now houses a manufacturing, distribution, and barge operation. Fokker Field is the northern end of the Glen Dale to Moundsville Rail-Trail, which runs 3.4 miles south to the Ohio Riverfront. Glen Dale is a river city with a farmstead, a factory site, and a rail trail all occupying the same narrow stretch of valley.