Carter County is blessed with an abundance of natural beauty.
Forests. Lakes. Creeks and waterfalls. Caves and rock formations. Our community really has a lot to offer outdoor enthusiasts – be they rugged backcountry campers or day hikers who have their supper at the lodge.
It’s the asset our two state parks are built upon, and one that we hope can be expanded upon with the Warrior’s Path project. This National Park Service recognized multi-use trail could bring even more folks into Carter County to enjoy our wild areas, and our history, with the proper support and promotion.
But one thing this will require is a concentrated effort to clean up the illegal dumps and litter that mar the landscapes such trails will traverse. Especially the waterways.
Our creeks and waterways are not only an essential portion of the project – which calls for multimodal use, including water-based travel – they’re integral to the history of the path as it passes through our community.
As Max Hammond and Jim Plummer have explained, we know the Warrior’s Path passes through Carter County because of the accounts from captives of a Native raiding party which describe following Tygart Creek to around present-day Olive Hill before splitting up, with one group continuing to follow Tygart Creek and the other traveling overland to the Little Sandy River.
Kayaking opportunities – especially on Tygart Creek – could be a significant part of the Warrior’s Path experience.
But it’s also an excellent example of how trash and litter can detract from that experience.
The stretch of Tygart Creek between Olive Hill and Carter Caves is a spectacular paddle, with enough swift water to keep the kayaker on their toes, but easy enough for the novice to safely navigate with an experienced guide. It treats the paddler to views of pretty woodland scenes and towering rock cliffs – and lots and lots of garbage.
It isn’t just a few pop bottles and some milk jugs either. There have been major appliances found dumped along the creek. There are tires that have been in the creek so long, trees have begun growing through them and wrapping their roots around them.
Prior to the pandemic, the Friends of Tygart Creek held an annual cleanup day that removed several dumpster loads of material from the creek, including a number of old tires, which were collected and recycled by Porter Tires in Globe.
This was a good start, and we absolutely commend the dedicated folks who organized and volunteered to work the event, including Carl and Lisa Burton, who helped coordinate the event in its infancy.
But what we really need in Carter County is a cultural shift in how we treat the landscape and waterways.
In a land dominated by hills and waterways, every place is downstream from some place. And every piece of garbage, from the smallest ketchup packet to the broken freezer you just want out of your way, can end up in one of our major creeks or rivers if it isn’t handled properly. Every time you decide, “It’s so small, it isn’t going to make any difference,” or, “It’s so big, it isn’t going anywhere once I put it over the hill,” you’re making a decision that doesn’t just impact you and your family, but all of your neighbors, and their neighbors, and the folks in the next community downstream.
It may seem small, but it adds up.
In their first cleanup event, back in 2018, the Friends of Tygart Creek picked up a total of 182 tires, along with other trash, from along the banks. It was a good start, but those tires didn’t accumulate there overnight, and it will take more than a couple of events to clean them up for good.
What it will take is a dedicated change from folks who call Carter County home. From folks who make a concentrated effort to put their candy wrappers in their pocket until they can get to a trash can, who hold onto garbage – even biodegradable garbage like paper – until they can dispose of it properly.
It will take changes, from you, and from all of us. But it’s a change that we can make, if we want to. Even if nothing else comes of the Warrior’s Path or other tourism plans, we’ll still be left with a cleaner, more beautiful community. That’s a worthwhile goal in itself.
