meant that car ownership was once again little more than a dream for many, and travel by bus or train returned to full fashion. Hitchhiking also found its way into the popular vernacular, and it was nothing to give a friendly traveler on a country road a ride to the next town. The New Deal program ushered in a flurry of work from highways and bridges to state park facilities and campgrounds. These improvements would be felt by generations of visitors to come. One major draw for tourists during the 1930s was horse race betting, opened at the Charles Town Turf Club in 1933. A story in the Shepherdstown Register crowed that 3,000 to 4,000 people showed up for the inaugural races at the facility and more than $44,000 in bets was placed in one day. Wheeling Downs racetrack was completed in 1937, further cementing the city of Wheeling as the “metropolis of the state” and a sure draw for tourists. History was another major attraction—from prehistoric geological formations to the stomping grounds of the nation’s first president, who’d spent considerable time in West Virginia. Visitors were drawn to places where he’d walked and delighted in sleeping in the places where he’d slept. The West Virginia Historic and Scenic Highway Markers guide published in the 1930s went into great detail for potential visitors interested in historical pursuits. The state was heavily involved in industries supporting World War II and experienced an economic boom in the 1940s. Hotels were plentiful, and the West Virginia Hotel and Restaurant Guide published in the 1940s—a project of the now-defunct West Virginia Industrial and Publicity Commission—provides insight into the tourism industry of the time. One of the more expensive places to lay a weary traveler’s head was the Hill Top House on Ridge Street in Harpers Ferry, where $14 would buy a meal and a night’s stay in a double room. Some state parks also had family vacation cabins available, although they would be remote and the vacation would call for plenty of “roughing it.” Popular diversions included swimming, boating, and horseback riding in state parks. Most visitors arrived by car, train, or bus— still—but air travel was emerging as an option for wealthy travelers, with charter air service available in 16 cities across the state.
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A region in which the Washingtons spent more time than in the Old Commonwealth… this is West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle… it is literally in the front yard of the nation’s capital and is within less than half a day’s journey from the millions of pleasure seekers in the Baltimore and Philadelphia districts. It is one of the few remaining places in the East that have not been ruined by over-exploitation or by commercialization.
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Preston County has claimed national recognition for its potatoes and buckwheat. Its cranberries raised from bogs in the highlands have an unusual flavor. At Reedsville is the model Federal homestead project sponsored by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the president. “
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