Mountaineer Country
By Anna Moore
The home of the West Virginia University (WVU) Mountaineers and the growing cities of Fairmont, Clarksburg, Morgantown and Bridgeport, Mountaineer Country offers a sense of spirit and pride for West Virginia. Stretching across the counties of Doddridge, Barbour, Preston, Taylor, Monongalia, Marion and Harrison, this region offers Coopers Rock, Tygart Lake, Hovatter’s Wildlife Zoo, the Barrackville Covered Bridge and the Anna Jarvis Museum. This piece of Almost Heaven holds significance as a cultural and economic hub in the state, boasting rich history, educational
institutions and a range of industries that contribute to the state’s vitality.
Development & Infrastructure
The Morgantown Area Partnership is a public-private alliance supporting economic, business and community growth efforts. The Partnership is working on getting the Chaplin Hill Road exit north of WVU expanded, attracting retail stores to the WestRidge area, expanding Mountaintop Beverage Company and executing many other expansion and development projects.
At Mountaintop Beverage, a third-party contract beverage manufacturer in the Westover community, the goal is to hire more employees to bring its staff up to 225 this year and up to 500 in the next five years.
“Our building size right now is 330,000 square feet, and our intent is to potentially double the size of this based on demand. We have customers who are waiting to come to our facility, and we’re just securing all the capital,” says Beth Pratt, chief people officer at Mountaintop Beverage.
In Marion County, a nearly $70 million investment has been made at Middletown Commons in Fairmont to redesign it so more retail, offices and services can move in.
In Harrison County, Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s BHE GT&S is looking to expand and continue working in communities with its charitable giving program.
“We’re looking to build out our infrastructure and natural gas pipelines in the states of West Virginia and Ohio,” says Jason Harshbarger, BHE GT&S state policy director in both states. “Those are the two key states that we have a focus on right now.”
Revitalizing property that already exists, the Preston County Economic Development Authority (EDA) received an Abandoned Mine Land pilot grant to repair and upgrade the 44,000-square-foot former Kinney Shoe Factory building to create a six-acre pad site behind the building with a road and utilities.
“The EDA wants to bring in a new manufacturing company to lease or purchase the building,” says Robbie Baylor, Preston County EDA director. “The EDA hopes to get grant funding to put a new training center on a portion of the new pad site. The remainder of the pad site will be available for additional development.”
The North Central West Virginia Airport in Bridgeport connects this part of West Virginia with the rest of the world. It is served by Allegiant and Contour Airlines and offers direct service to Charlotte, NC; Destin, Orlando, Tampa and St. Petersburg in Florida; and Myrtle Beach, SC.
“Our airport creates thousands of jobs and has an annual $1.1 billion economic impact in West Virginia’s aerospace industry,” says Richard Rock, airport director.
An expansion to the airport is underway, including a 53,000-square-foot modern, expandable terminal that will serve the state for decades to come. A new Aerotek park is also included in the expansion.
Broadband has also been taking flight in Mountaineer Country. Prodigi was awarded four lead grants to continue fiber construction in Preston County, and with the most recent grants, one will run broadband into part of Tucker County and one will run broadband into part of Barbour County, Baylor says.
Also on the development front, Mon Power is powering an electric vehicle charger with renewable energy generated by an array of solar panels outside of its headquarters along I-79 in Fairmont. The research and development project includes 28 solar panels and a battery to store the electricity generated by the micro-solar site.
“As the demand for electricity grows with the increase in electrification of transportation, this micro-solar energy installation is a great way to support the environment while lessening the demand on the energy grid,” says Jim Myers, president of FirstEnergy’s West Virginia operations.
Separately, in August, the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved the company’s request to complete three of five planned solar sites in the state. FirstEnergy’s West Virginia Solar Program allows customers of Mon Power and Potomac Edison in West Virginia to support renewable energy without the large upfront cost of building their own infrastructure. The companies have subscribed several industrial and commercial customers along with hundreds of residential customers.
Health Care
WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital. Photo by WVU Medicine.
WVU Medicine is WVU’s academic health system, offering transplant services such as heart, kidney, corneal, bone marrow and stem cell and advanced heart therapies and surgical procedures not offered by other West Virginia health systems. The WVU Health System also offers strong programs and services in the areas of cancer, ophthalmology through the WVU Eye Institute and the neurosciences, including neurosurgery, neurology, behavioral medicine and neuroradiology.
“Offering these unique and highly specialized services enables West Virginians to stay close to home when, or if, they need them versus traveling out-of-state,” says Albert Wright Jr., president and CEO of the WVU Health System and board chair of Peak Health.
Keeping West Virginians in-state for their health care was also the inspiration behind WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital, which opened in September 2022. The 150-bed hospital offers 90 specialist providers with the entire range of specialties in pediatrics.
WVU Medicine, in partnership with Marshall Health and other health care providers, has also launched Peak Health, which is a health insurance company built by West Virginia doctors for West Virginians, Wright says.
“Peak Health is different from other health insurance providers, as we are integrating our hospitals and clinics with it,” he says. “That integration is the key differentiator, as doing so creates a level of unity and alignment that most other health systems and health insurers do not have, as they typically work against one another in a win-lose type economic arrangement.”
With its mission being every patient, every time, Mon Health System focuses on the well-being of the communities it serves.
Mon Health Medical Center. Photo by Mon Health System.
“We are involved in community organizations, buy services from community businesses, participate in local educational activities, build and construct facilities through community-based companies and so much more as a core employer and health care provider,” says David Goldberg, president and CEO of
Mon Health System and executive vice president of Vandalia Health. “While doing this, we develop programs to improve the health and wellness of our friends, families and neighbors with empathy, expertise and laser-focused quality care.”
Mon Health Medical Center, Marion Neighborhood Hospital, Preston Memorial Hospital, Stonewall Jackson Hospital and The Village at Heritage Point all make up Mon Health System, which is a member of Vandalia Health.
Education & Innovation
Woodburn Hall on the WVU Downtown Campus in Morgantown, WV. Photo by WVU/Alyssa Reeves.
WVU is a public, land-grant institution with its flagship campus in Morgantown and additional campuses in Beckley and Keyser. WVU also has two additional health sciences centers in Charleston and Martinsburg.
“West Virginia University’s connections and impact span West Virginia,” says April Kaull, executive director of communications for WVU University Relations and Enrollment Management. “In North Central West Virginia specifically, WVU employs 7,900 people and has an estimated $1.4 billion total annual economic impact on the local economy.”
The university is embedded throughout all 55 counties of West Virginia. Through WVU Extension, the university works on the ground to bring solutions to real-life problems in all counties. The Center for Excellence in Disabilities has
80 faculty and staff in 17 locations across the state, and through partnerships with more than 200 community organizations and a statewide Million Hour Match initiative, the Center for Community Engagement leverages WVU’s strengths to help better the state.
“WVU is built on partnerships that will be key to the future we envision as a modern land-grant institution,” Kaull says. “We bring an entrepreneurial spirit to the pursuit of more industry partnerships designed to provide a strong pipeline for our students into internships, co-ops and jobs.”
Photo by Fairmont State Dustin Merrill.
Fairmont State University is a comprehensive four-year university with more than 3,200 students and offers more than 40 degree programs. Many of those programs are unique to the region, including the state’s only accredited bachelor’s and master’s programs in architecture and the state’s first aviation program with an FAA 141 flight school.
The university is entering a new era with its new president, Dr. Mike Davis. He began his term as president learning about the campus and community’s values.
“I’ve been holding ‘Open Mike’ events on campus and in the community, during which I listen to what people are interested in and what people are excited about. My primary goal is to connect with the campus and wider communities and figure out what they’re excited about and what potential partnerships and relationships we can create,” Davis says.
Enhancing the town and gown relationship is Fairmont State’s Falcon Center, a state-of-the-art facility for campus recreation that is open to the campus community and surrounding community alike.
“It has many services and areas open to the public, including food and beverage locations like Chick-fil-A and Starbucks, and memberships are also available for things in the Falcon Center like our indoor pool, fitness rooms, walking track, full-size gyms and conference center,” says Ken Fettig, vice president for student success.
Pierpont Community & Technical College’s aviation maintenance technology program will soon be housed in the North Central West Virginia Airport, thanks to a $25 million budget allocation by the West Virginia Legislature. The 70,000-square-foot facility will feature two high bay hangars; aviation-related specialty labs, including shops for turbine and reciprocating engine overhauls; flight controls and hydraulics; lecture classrooms; and a learning resource and testing center, according to Pierpont. The community and technical college’s advanced welding program will also have shops and classrooms at the facility.
The West Virginia Department of Education oversees the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics Technical Assistance Center in Morgantown. The program enhances educational opportunities among middle schoolers across the state by focusing on all content areas and promoting problem-solving and critical thinking skills, which are needed in today’s workforce.
Celebrating its 30-year anniversary, the High Technology Foundation is housed in the I-79 Technology Park and prides itself on building a stronger West Virginia. The foundation has an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math—STEM—and offers a substantial amount of annual contracting opportunities for the business community.
Trilogy Innovations held its second Tech Yeah Conference in June. The conference encourages academia and both large and small businesses to come together to learn about one another and collaborate to expand the tech industry in the state.
“Tech Yeah was started to give small businesses in the area a platform to start talking about their core capabilities,” says Brandon Downey, Trilogy Innovations CEO and president. “Most often within these borders and sometimes outside these borders, there’s not a lot of visibility on many of the great things these companies are doing. They often get overshadowed by larger firms making investments in West Virginia whenever these companies have established a foothold here, started their companies here and started growing organically within the state. So, for us, we wanted to bring everyone together to start highlighting them and to also give the students that are residents here that have been born, raised and now educated within West Virginia, basically a different outlook.”
Tourism
Tygart Lake State Park. Photo by West Virginia Department of Tourism.
The Mountaineer Trails is a 16-county network of trails in North Central West Virginia. In 2024, the five initial hubs, four non-motorized bike trails and one water trail will launch.
“It’s really just trying to capitalize on attracting those outdoor recreational biking and boating enthusiasts, particularly within a day’s drive of North Central West Virginia,” says Susan Riddle, president and CEO of Visit Mountaineer Country Convention and Visitors’ Bureau (CVB). “We are strategically and geographically focused and located ideally for a majority of the population in the country to get here in less than a day’s drive.”
The City of Fairmont is working on the Fairmont Rail Trail Connector project that will close a 4.5-mile gap in the Parkersburg to Pittsburgh corridor.
“The first step of this is implementing the West Fork River Trail extension, a 2.5-mile build-out along the riverfront, with a public trailhead with amenities at its terminus in the Beltline neighborhood,” says Shae Strait, Fairmont’s director of planning and development. “This will be followed up with other projects connecting the rail trail to downtown, Fairmont State, other neighborhoods and eventually to the MCTrail, which runs through Prickett’s Fort.”
The City of Fairmont finalized property acquisitions in summer 2023. This is all a piece of a five-year plan with construction likely to begin in 2024 with a larger 10-year plan to construct a new pedestrian bridge across the Monongahela River from downtown to Palatine Park, Strait says.
In Taylor County, Tygart Lake State Park offers swimming, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, boating, water skiing and scuba diving. The Tygart Adventure Lake by ACE Adventures continues to expand, attracting visitors from neighboring states. It features giant inflatables and a sandy beach with lounge chairs.
“We are really trying to focus on our strengths and tourism certainly is that,” says Patricia Henderson, Taylor County EDA executive director.
Fans of flat water or rapids can enjoy kayaking or rafting the Cheat River. Up north in Morgantown, campers and hikers often find their way to Coopers Rock State Forest, which also offers rock climbing and zip lines. In Fairmont, Valley Falls State Park offers fly fishing and guests can view the scenic waterfalls.
Sports tourism is a growing industry in Mountaineer Country if outdoor recreational sports aren’t your style. A non-motorized bike park will open in 2024 at Mylan Park in Morgantown. The Bridge Sports Complex in Bridgeport continues to grow with expanded sports tournament schedules, bringing outside dollars into the city. It currently offers aquatics, club sports, youth programs, adult leagues and fitness training.
Often an events-driven destination, Riddle says bidding on major sporting events helps magnify awareness of the region.
Photo by West Virginia Department of Tourism.
“When we did the bidding process for the USA Diving Olympic Trials, we got a lot of national press and we’re continuing to build out those relationships where we have those opportunities,” she says. “Next year, we’re bringing in the state of Pennsylvania YMCA Swimming Championship and also the Junior Nationals with USA Diving. Those very specific destination branding advancement type of events are things that we’re trying to really see what we can do to magnify the area.”
As for community events, Preston County offers the Buckwheat Festival to celebrate the wheat crop that offered agricultural economic development during the Great Depression, and Doddridge County offers the Ephraim Bee Festival to honor its own pioneer. Each fall, Morgantown residents and visitors alike can view the foliage from above during Balloons Over Morgantown where nearly 20 hot air balloons launch from the Morgantown Airport.
All in all, Mountaineer Country offers an array of opportunities, promotes progress and demonstrates ingenuity all may benefit from.
