Published: May 11, 2006 09:48 am         

Families remember life before state park

Encompassing nearly 4,000 sprawling acres, Twin Falls Resort State Park was once home to several Wyoming County families, who were forced to move in the 1960s to create the beautiful public amenity.

Eddie Severt of Bolt spent the first 10 years of his life in what is now the assistant superintendent’s house.

“My dad (David Severt) built that house,” he said. His father owned 20 acres at the time.

The house that belonged to his grandmother, Barbara Severt, became the museum. She owned 33 acres.

He recalls climbing the cherry trees, just over the hill behind his grandmother’s home.

At the time, Charlie Bower owned the farm, which has been restored to create the pioneer homestead.

“He rented it on occasion, but he didn’t live there,” Severt recalled of the 1960s.

When the state government determined the land would be used for a new park, there were Jim and Ada Bower, who had 13 children; Ted and Laura Shumate, with seven children; Ira and Famie Canada, along with his grandmother, Barbara, and parents, David and Stella Severt, making their homes there.

“There may have been others,” he added.

The conversion of the area into Twin Falls State Park began in 1964, when Western Pocahontas Corporation and Pocahontas Land Corporation gave the State of West Virginia a “gift of land” to develop a state park, according to records.

Funding for development was made available in 1968, under the Area Redevelopment Administration (ARA) with additional funding from new loans and grants.

Severt said the families were notified in the spring of 1965 they would have to be out by the fall.

His father had been hurt in the mines, but drove the school bus that picked up the children who lived in the area.

At the time, there was only a dirt road that accessed the properties. If two cars passed by during the day, that was a lot of traffic, Severt noted.

His family raised minks and they moved to a farm in Bolt; his grandmother bought a farm nearby.

Severt said they were told by government representatives at the time to take the money or leave it, but they would be out by fall.

“We were paid some money for the land, but we didn’t have the money to hire a lawyer,” he recalled.

Charlie Bower did hire a lawyer, but didn’t stop the acquisition.

“Eminent domain is a big thing now and people forget that some people sacrificed for this park,” he emphasized.

“I had to leave my friends that I went to school with, but it was hardest on my dad because he was raised there,” Severt recalled.

It took 82 truck loads to move his family, including the farm equipment, over the course of a month.

Recently, the museum has been closed because of a lack of volunteers, he said. For years members of the area garden clubs had kept the museum operating.

Severt said his family would like to operate the museum — at least on the weekends, but can’t commit to every weekend.

It would be one way, he believes, to maintain his connection to his family’s legacy.