T’was the week before Christmas and all through the trails,
We kept hearing the noise of faint jingle bells.
Mama in her thermals, and I with my map,
Our Polaris stalled out and I thought, Oh crap!
We had enjoyed the scenery so much -we talked for ages,
Low and behold we ignored all the gauges,
And that was how it all came to pass,
So much fun on the trails, we ran out of gas!
We started to shake, we started to shiver,
We got kinda thirsty, our hands they did quiver,
When what to our wondering eyes should appear,
But a large chubby fellow, in a sled hauled by deer!
I had never seen such and old fashioned ride,
It looked like a barrel, with rails down the side,
And the beasts that did haul it, were a wonder too,
They may have been elk, or possibly caribou!
The man who climbed out was quite a sight to see,
Like an old mountain man, all gruff and blustery,
He had a long wooly beard, his clothing was weird.
A red hood on his head,
A red furry coat that fell open by chance,
To reveal beat up sneakers and bright red sweat pants,
He was big and burly and woolly as could be,
Like an old timey Viking come home from the Sea;
He stopped and said “Howdy, y’all looks to be in a muss,
Good thing I was out deliverin’ gifts a-for Christmas.”
He reached in his sled and pulled out a red fuel can,
said,“Put this in your tank, an' git movin’ man!”
That big bearded fellow, so large and so slow,
His breath making clouds in the wind full of snow,
He reached in his bag, and said, “You can use this here,”
And handed over some Hatfield McCoy trail gear.
For mama he gave, a nice hoodie with sleeves.
With a logo on the back, featuring angel’s wings.
For me he gave a green baseball cap, and said,
“Most of your heat, escapes through your head,
I always carry warm stuff when out in my sled.”
He wished us goodbye as we got on our way,
And we looked back in gratitude as he left on his sleigh;
A little while later a ranger we saw, we stopped to discuss
And try got get thawed.
The SUV he was in was as white as winter snow,
It said, “Hatfield-McCoy Law Enforcement” you know.
We asked the young ranger, “Was that Santa Claus?”
He started to laugh then he started to pause.
“Nah, that was Big Jim, he is one of our CSRS,
He comes from Kentucky and is primitive and don’t much trust cars.”
He invited us back and we said we’ll come next summer,
Cuz without West Virginia Hospitality today could have been a bummer!
So come on to the trails in spring or winter time.
The scenery is beautiful, its’ truly sublime.
The folks are so friendly they treat you so nice,
Come get a piece of heaven, your own little slice.
"Happy Holidays from the Hatfield-McCoy crew."
(And remember, stop by our trail heads and visit with our friendly CSRs and check out the latest in authorized Hatfield-McCoy Trail Gear.They are there to make your trip an enjoyable one.)
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Jeff Lusk on the Trails origin and future
The 10th Anniversary of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails was part of a
special feature by Art Sanda in the Dec. newsletter from the Logan
County Chamber of Commerce. This feature was originally published in
the October/November 2010 edition of Coal People.
( The magazine ’s website is www.coalpeople.com and the original full length article is
well worth reading to understand how Hatfield-McCoy came about and
where it will eventually head. Thanks to Debrina Williams of the Logan Chamber of Commerce for spreading awareness of this important article! Tremendous thanks to Coal People and Art Sanda for a great story and feature interview with a very intelligent and unique, far sighted individual who has done a lot of good for his region, and the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority our own Jeff Lusk! Below are some of the highlights from the article, along with an observation or two from Big Jim Charles.)
The four page feature article noted that the Hatfield -McCoy Trail
System steadily continues towards an eventual goal of 1,000 miles of
off-road vehicle recreational riding and providing economic stimulus
to an area struggling with declining coal miningjobs and dwindling
populations. Below are some exerpts from the peice which featured an
excellent interview with Executive Director Jeff Lusk.
"We ‘re hoping to make a major difference by developing a tourism
industry, and all that entails,where none has existed," Jeff Lusk is quoted as saying in the
feature, which notes the early key to success for the Hatfield-McCoy
Trail System was cooperation between land companies and coal mining,
gas well drilling and timbering companies.
"Without their cooperation nothing would have been possible as the
trail system was developed on private property. This year, the trail
system is celebrating its 10th Aniversary, but its genesis goes
back several more years when the late Leff Moore, who was with the WV
Recreational Vehicles Association, Mike Whitt, executive director of the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority, and John English, a Virginia attorney for the Motorcycle Industry
Council began meeting and got other interested people involved. "
The first meetings also brought together coal, timber, gas, and land
companies at the Brass Tree Restaurant in Williamson. (Later, the group met at Matewan -Big Jim.)
Those companies were often facing mounting litigation from illegal
riding accidents from riders trespassing on their properties and
feasibility study was made. In 1994 Congressman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV)
obtained $800,000 in an appropriations bill to conduct the study which was
completed in 1996.
In 1995, Moore and English began soliciting the variousCounty
Commissions in six southern counties for their support, which they received. Ironically
one county that was not interested then, came aboard later as the
eigth Hatfield-McCoy county. However, because of a fiat from the
board, it had to wait for the final trail to be built.
(At current time it is expected to be completed this coming spring. See the recent
announcements on the Hatfield-McCoy Riders page or Facebook page for
more information.)
In the spring of 1997 the WV legislature appropriated $1.5 million to get the
project started. The Hatfield-McCoy steering committeee offered to
oversee the project and manage the properties in return providing them
with trained law enforcement in the form of Hatfield-McCoy's Ranger
force and liablitiy insurance. In return the trail system would not
get in the way of coal, timber, or gas extraction. Even at that early stage it was realized that different trail sections could be closed, or rerouted for natural recource extraction.
"Apparently we stuck a chord with them — we also had some great companies with
which we worked —and by October 2000 we had opened three trail systems in
three counties totaling 300 miles," Lusk said.
With continued community support and great cooperation from the land owners,
that has increased to where today Hatfield-McCoy has the use of half-a-million acres of
land spread out over nine counties with six trail systems in five of those counties,
and next year it will be opening another in Mercer County, with active trail systems
to six of the nine participating counties:
Kanawha, Lincoln, Wayne, Boone, Logan,
Mingo, Wyoming, McDowell, and Mercer.
Lusk said Pocahontas Land Company is the largest single land owner the
Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority works with.
"Their property amounts to about 10 percent of the total 500,000
acres comprising the system while other companies
such as Natural Resource Partners, W.W. McDonald Land Company, and
Cliffs Resources combined constitute more than 30 percent of our total property."
Among the coal companies the largest tracts are owned by Consol
Energy and A.T. Massey Coal Co., but we also do a lot of work with
International Industries in Gilbert —Gary White and Buck Harless —
and with Robert Preservati who operates mines near the new Mercer County Pocahontas
Trail System.
Coal businessmen Gary White and Buck Harless were the first coal
operators Hatfield-McCoy dealt and they were a great help in getting
the Authority in the door with other coal-related land companies, Lusk
said.
Today , the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System is governed
by a 21-member board including industry company representatives,
county representatives, and three at-large members.
The board meets quarterly. Lusk is the fifth executive director coming on board in December 2005 .Prior to that he had been with the Wyoming County Economic Development Authority, but he had roots with the Trails having met with others about the project
regularly at a restaurant in Matewan during the planning days in the
1990s.
"I worked with Mike Whitt, manager of the Mingo County Redevelopment
Authority; I can ‘t say enough about him. He was the first to bring land companies
to the table for us, having had worked with them in cleaning-up open
dumps on their properties, and it was Mike who first brought them to
the table. Today 385 companies are onboard —land companies and coal,
gas and timber companies, along with a dozen or so private individual
land owners."
Lusk explained that each industry has different requirements.
"With timberlands, we can ‘t get in there until the timbering
operation is complete, but after which we can take advantage of their haul roads. Gas probably is the easiest, just stay away from drill sites and wellheads but, again, we have
their roads with which to work when the drilling is complete. When it
comes to coal, underground mines do not typically pose much of a
problem as, for the most part, they are stationary and the vast
majority of our trails follow the ridges, rather than the valleys
where the portals would be located.
"On the other hand, surface mines constantly are changing
their foot-prints, and we constantly are working our trails around
them. All of the companies though, have been very good to work with.
In our experience, once an operator finds out that they are in the
driver ‘s seat, once it is realized we won ‘t do anything to hinder
the operations on the properties, well then they are glad to have us
around, acting more or less as custodians of their property...we ‘ve
become somewhat of a problem solver for them. Because we work the
roads, because we enforce the law and the permitting of riders, we go
along way in limiting the number of trespassers.That ‘s what happens when you have active managers on the properties."
Even at current size, the Hatfield-McCoy Trail system is the second
largest recreational vehicle trail system in the country, second only to Pauite ATV Trail in
Utah.That is the largest in mileage.
(However, many of those who have ridden both point out the superiority of Hatfield-McCoy due to the terrain, the four vivid seasons and the ameneties of the mountains.)
Lusk noted it is difficult to tell who has themost riders as Utah
doesn't sell passes and Hatfield-McCoy does, and it had 32, 842 riders
last year.
As Jeff Lusk noted in the feature the primary point of the
Hatfield-McCoy Trails was to boost local economies and it has been
tremendously successful at that according to studies from tourism
commissions and state colleges.
"It ‘s been estimated that our riders spend about $10 million for
lodging, permits,
meals, machine repairs and fuel and related activities," Lusk
explained. "Significantly, as our primary goal is to create a tourism
industry in these southern counties, 87 percent of our riders are from
out of state."
Hatfield-McCoy gets riders from not just all over the United States,
but all over the world.
The Authority is supported by revenues from permit sales and
merchandise, sponsorships andsome state revenues. The Authority now
receives $700,000 in special revenue funding from the State of West
Virginia, and generates more than $2 million in its own revenues. In
less than ten years, it grew from a very small staff to 15 full-time
employees and over 30 part-time employees.
Where once it was 100 percent state funded, now 70 percent of the
operating budget is generated by the Authority itself, thanks in large
part to Lusk himself, who aproached the board early on about improving
merchandising.
Lusk noted that merchandising could be vital to increasing the Authority's income and often joked to the Board members that if they could sell a rider a permit, they could sell him a hat
and t-shirt like Disney World did, or that the Authority could market
the Trails as a brand similar to Harley Davidson. In very short order,
Lusk was proven right when merchandising boomed.
"About 75 percent of our merchandise is sold through local retailers
and vendors," he explained. "We ‘re not a competitor, we ‘re a
generator.Our sole purpose is to bring tourism into Southern
West Virginia, to generate business by creating a tourism industry
where one did not exist, spurring businesses and entrepreneurship."
Since opening the first trails in 2000 there are 44 new places of
lodging, two ATV dealerships, and a host of restaurants, gift shops, and other small businesses that developed along the way. Most are located within the towns and cities
off the trail where they often allow limited ATV riding
on their streets.
Lusk aid that once the trails are interconnected those businesses
will be spurred to further benefit as riders can travel from one
community to the next on their ATVs, dirtbikes and UTVs, making stops
along the way.
"With all the trails interconnected, theoretically —once we get the
remaining trail systems established in Mercer, Lincoln, Wayne, and
Kanawha counties over the next several years —you will be able to
travel via ATV, side-by-side, dirt bike, even horses and hiking from
the State ‘s Capitol in Charleston to the Virginia-Kentucky borders."
The Authority's main goal is to to increase the system from 500
rideable miles to 1,000 miles, and to expand and connect all the trails already in the system.
Over the long haul, Lusk said Hatfield-McCoy may have as much as 2,000
miles of trails spread over a million acres of privately owned land — but
that is a long term goal many years down the road.
special feature by Art Sanda in the Dec. newsletter from the Logan
County Chamber of Commerce. This feature was originally published in
the October/November 2010 edition of Coal People.
( The magazine ’s website is www.coalpeople.com and the original full length article is
well worth reading to understand how Hatfield-McCoy came about and
where it will eventually head. Thanks to Debrina Williams of the Logan Chamber of Commerce for spreading awareness of this important article! Tremendous thanks to Coal People and Art Sanda for a great story and feature interview with a very intelligent and unique, far sighted individual who has done a lot of good for his region, and the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority our own Jeff Lusk! Below are some of the highlights from the article, along with an observation or two from Big Jim Charles.)
The four page feature article noted that the Hatfield -McCoy Trail
System steadily continues towards an eventual goal of 1,000 miles of
off-road vehicle recreational riding and providing economic stimulus
to an area struggling with declining coal miningjobs and dwindling
populations. Below are some exerpts from the peice which featured an
excellent interview with Executive Director Jeff Lusk.
"We ‘re hoping to make a major difference by developing a tourism
industry, and all that entails,where none has existed," Jeff Lusk is quoted as saying in the
feature, which notes the early key to success for the Hatfield-McCoy
Trail System was cooperation between land companies and coal mining,
gas well drilling and timbering companies.
"Without their cooperation nothing would have been possible as the
trail system was developed on private property. This year, the trail
system is celebrating its 10th Aniversary, but its genesis goes
back several more years when the late Leff Moore, who was with the WV
Recreational Vehicles Association, Mike Whitt, executive director of the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority, and John English, a Virginia attorney for the Motorcycle Industry
Council began meeting and got other interested people involved. "
The first meetings also brought together coal, timber, gas, and land
companies at the Brass Tree Restaurant in Williamson. (Later, the group met at Matewan -Big Jim.)
Those companies were often facing mounting litigation from illegal
riding accidents from riders trespassing on their properties and
feasibility study was made. In 1994 Congressman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV)
obtained $800,000 in an appropriations bill to conduct the study which was
completed in 1996.
In 1995, Moore and English began soliciting the variousCounty
Commissions in six southern counties for their support, which they received. Ironically
one county that was not interested then, came aboard later as the
eigth Hatfield-McCoy county. However, because of a fiat from the
board, it had to wait for the final trail to be built.
(At current time it is expected to be completed this coming spring. See the recent
announcements on the Hatfield-McCoy Riders page or Facebook page for
more information.)
In the spring of 1997 the WV legislature appropriated $1.5 million to get the
project started. The Hatfield-McCoy steering committeee offered to
oversee the project and manage the properties in return providing them
with trained law enforcement in the form of Hatfield-McCoy's Ranger
force and liablitiy insurance. In return the trail system would not
get in the way of coal, timber, or gas extraction. Even at that early stage it was realized that different trail sections could be closed, or rerouted for natural recource extraction.
"Apparently we stuck a chord with them — we also had some great companies with
which we worked —and by October 2000 we had opened three trail systems in
three counties totaling 300 miles," Lusk said.
With continued community support and great cooperation from the land owners,
that has increased to where today Hatfield-McCoy has the use of half-a-million acres of
land spread out over nine counties with six trail systems in five of those counties,
and next year it will be opening another in Mercer County, with active trail systems
to six of the nine participating counties:
Kanawha, Lincoln, Wayne, Boone, Logan,
Mingo, Wyoming, McDowell, and Mercer.
Lusk said Pocahontas Land Company is the largest single land owner the
Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority works with.
"Their property amounts to about 10 percent of the total 500,000
acres comprising the system while other companies
such as Natural Resource Partners, W.W. McDonald Land Company, and
Cliffs Resources combined constitute more than 30 percent of our total property."
Among the coal companies the largest tracts are owned by Consol
Energy and A.T. Massey Coal Co., but we also do a lot of work with
International Industries in Gilbert —Gary White and Buck Harless —
and with Robert Preservati who operates mines near the new Mercer County Pocahontas
Trail System.
Coal businessmen Gary White and Buck Harless were the first coal
operators Hatfield-McCoy dealt and they were a great help in getting
the Authority in the door with other coal-related land companies, Lusk
said.
Today , the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System is governed
by a 21-member board including industry company representatives,
county representatives, and three at-large members.
The board meets quarterly. Lusk is the fifth executive director coming on board in December 2005 .Prior to that he had been with the Wyoming County Economic Development Authority, but he had roots with the Trails having met with others about the project
regularly at a restaurant in Matewan during the planning days in the
1990s.
"I worked with Mike Whitt, manager of the Mingo County Redevelopment
Authority; I can ‘t say enough about him. He was the first to bring land companies
to the table for us, having had worked with them in cleaning-up open
dumps on their properties, and it was Mike who first brought them to
the table. Today 385 companies are onboard —land companies and coal,
gas and timber companies, along with a dozen or so private individual
land owners."
Lusk explained that each industry has different requirements.
"With timberlands, we can ‘t get in there until the timbering
operation is complete, but after which we can take advantage of their haul roads. Gas probably is the easiest, just stay away from drill sites and wellheads but, again, we have
their roads with which to work when the drilling is complete. When it
comes to coal, underground mines do not typically pose much of a
problem as, for the most part, they are stationary and the vast
majority of our trails follow the ridges, rather than the valleys
where the portals would be located.
"On the other hand, surface mines constantly are changing
their foot-prints, and we constantly are working our trails around
them. All of the companies though, have been very good to work with.
In our experience, once an operator finds out that they are in the
driver ‘s seat, once it is realized we won ‘t do anything to hinder
the operations on the properties, well then they are glad to have us
around, acting more or less as custodians of their property...we ‘ve
become somewhat of a problem solver for them. Because we work the
roads, because we enforce the law and the permitting of riders, we go
along way in limiting the number of trespassers.That ‘s what happens when you have active managers on the properties."
Even at current size, the Hatfield-McCoy Trail system is the second
largest recreational vehicle trail system in the country, second only to Pauite ATV Trail in
Utah.That is the largest in mileage.
(However, many of those who have ridden both point out the superiority of Hatfield-McCoy due to the terrain, the four vivid seasons and the ameneties of the mountains.)
Lusk noted it is difficult to tell who has themost riders as Utah
doesn't sell passes and Hatfield-McCoy does, and it had 32, 842 riders
last year.
As Jeff Lusk noted in the feature the primary point of the
Hatfield-McCoy Trails was to boost local economies and it has been
tremendously successful at that according to studies from tourism
commissions and state colleges.
"It ‘s been estimated that our riders spend about $10 million for
lodging, permits,
meals, machine repairs and fuel and related activities," Lusk
explained. "Significantly, as our primary goal is to create a tourism
industry in these southern counties, 87 percent of our riders are from
out of state."
Hatfield-McCoy gets riders from not just all over the United States,
but all over the world.
The Authority is supported by revenues from permit sales and
merchandise, sponsorships andsome state revenues. The Authority now
receives $700,000 in special revenue funding from the State of West
Virginia, and generates more than $2 million in its own revenues. In
less than ten years, it grew from a very small staff to 15 full-time
employees and over 30 part-time employees.
Where once it was 100 percent state funded, now 70 percent of the
operating budget is generated by the Authority itself, thanks in large
part to Lusk himself, who aproached the board early on about improving
merchandising.
Lusk noted that merchandising could be vital to increasing the Authority's income and often joked to the Board members that if they could sell a rider a permit, they could sell him a hat
and t-shirt like Disney World did, or that the Authority could market
the Trails as a brand similar to Harley Davidson. In very short order,
Lusk was proven right when merchandising boomed.
"About 75 percent of our merchandise is sold through local retailers
and vendors," he explained. "We ‘re not a competitor, we ‘re a
generator.Our sole purpose is to bring tourism into Southern
West Virginia, to generate business by creating a tourism industry
where one did not exist, spurring businesses and entrepreneurship."
Since opening the first trails in 2000 there are 44 new places of
lodging, two ATV dealerships, and a host of restaurants, gift shops, and other small businesses that developed along the way. Most are located within the towns and cities
off the trail where they often allow limited ATV riding
on their streets.
Lusk aid that once the trails are interconnected those businesses
will be spurred to further benefit as riders can travel from one
community to the next on their ATVs, dirtbikes and UTVs, making stops
along the way.
"With all the trails interconnected, theoretically —once we get the
remaining trail systems established in Mercer, Lincoln, Wayne, and
Kanawha counties over the next several years —you will be able to
travel via ATV, side-by-side, dirt bike, even horses and hiking from
the State ‘s Capitol in Charleston to the Virginia-Kentucky borders."
The Authority's main goal is to to increase the system from 500
rideable miles to 1,000 miles, and to expand and connect all the trails already in the system.
Over the long haul, Lusk said Hatfield-McCoy may have as much as 2,000
miles of trails spread over a million acres of privately owned land — but
that is a long term goal many years down the road.
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