ry
and old houses; of lovely pastoral valleys of the South Branch,
Greenbrier and Tygart; of wild, boulder-strewn New River Canyon; of
Webster's forest monarchs and her deep, cool woods; of the 'brown waters
of Gauley that move evermore where the tulip tree scatters its blossoms
in Spring'; of the green hills mirrored in starlit Kanawha; of
white-splashing Blackwater Falls, awe-inspiring Grand View, enchanting
Seneca Rocks, and the remote Smoke Hole region with its Shangri La
inhabitants.

"Sing of our rhododendron and its dark-green, wax-like leaf and purple
flower; of Mingo's mighty oak that weathered six hundred winters; of our
highest peak, Spruce Knob, bony above the lush forest; of Cranberry
Glades and their strong plants native to Equator and Pole; bracing
altitudes, averaging highest east of the Mississippi.

"Sing a lay for the strawberries of Buckhannon, buckwheat of Kingwood,
our lowly but uprising spud, tobacco at Huntington, and the wine-smell
of orchards in Berkeley; for the horses of Greenbrier, Herefords of
Hampshire, sheep on Allegheny slopes, deer in a dozen State Parks, and
bears in the pines of Pocahontas.

"Sing of timber, iron and steel; of coal heaved by brawny miners into
the bituminous bin of the Nation; of oil gushers and gas flow; of
vitrolite and chromium, plastics and neon, rayon and nylon; of glass
stained for cathedrals of Europe; of billions of kilowatts from coal,
and potentially more water power; of fluorescent bulbs at Fairmont, and
poisonous red flakes in the Kanawha sky from metallurgical plants--fire
poppies blooming in the night.

"Sing of deeds and events of deathless renown; of Morgan Morgan and his
first white settlement at Bunker Hill; of James Rumsey and his steamboat
on the Potomac; of Chesapeake and Ohio's epic completion across the
State in '73 to the tune of legendary John Henry's steel-driving ballad
in Big Bend tunnel; of turnpikes, taverns and toll houses long
abandoned; of our leaders, Negro and white, in business, industry,
education, religion and government; of our stalwarts of union labor
whose vision, social comprehension and courage helped to bring a new day
for all; of our cherished democracy, flexible and self-righting in a
world where popular rule is a rarity.

"I have catalogued in clumsy prose what a Thomas Dunn English or a Roy
Lee Harmon could peel off in crisp, singing lines. Surely we have gifted
souls who can illumine our story in song--the story o