Marlinton, WV

Marlinton is the Pocahontas County seat in West Virginia, with 998 residents in the 2020 census. It sits on the Greenbrier River in the Allegheny Mountains, where the town’s streets, courthouse, and river trail make a small regional center. The community was named for Jacob Marlin, one of the first English settlers in the Greenbrier Valley, and the county courthouse moved here from Huntersville in 1891. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway arrived around 1900 and brought another round of growth.

The Greenbrier River Trail runs through Marlinton on the old rail corridor, linking the town to the larger mountain recreation map. Pioneer Days fills a July weekend with local history, while the Autumn Harvest Festival includes the Roadkill Cook-off and the Hudson Cream West Virginia Biscuit Bake Off. Droop Mountain Battlefield lies nearby, adding Civil War history to the river-and-rail setting. Marlinton is a West Virginia county seat where courthouse history, a mountain river, an old railroad, and unusual food traditions meet.