The "Great Falls" of Blackwater River drop about at the head of Blackwater Canyon. The major ledge is composed ofConnoquenessing sandstone of the Middle Pottsville Formation. The Falls are usually cited as the highest above-ground falls in the state. A rocky prominence near the center of the Falls divides its waters into a distinctive formation, rendering its images instantly recognizable. In winter, the Falls often ice over completely. A broad trail descends about from the Falls parking lot to a wooden walkway and overlook, while a much steeper trail extends beyond to the basin below the Falls. On the opposite side of the river, a longer trail also accesses the Falls from a higher vantage point.
Other park trails and falls
A nature trail near the park lodge leads to the more distant Lindy Point overlook, affording an excellent view south into the Canyon. There are several other smaller falls within the park. These chutes, cascades, and overhanging ledges on Falls Run, Shay Run, and Pendleton Run are accessible by trail.
History
The name of the first white explorer to stumble upon Blackwater Falls is not known. There was an oral tradition that it was the early hunter/explorer of the Potomac and Youghiogheny River watersheds Meshach Browning, but while this is plausible there is no documentary evidence for it. Travel writerPhilip Pendleton Kennedy described the Blackwater Canyon for a popular readership in 1853, but somehow managed to miss the Falls. The same year however, his companion and cousin, the illustrator David Hunter Strother, published “The Virginia Canaan” about his adventures in the Blackwater Country and the Falls entered the literature for the first time. Strother also published a more lengthy description of his June 1852 visit in an article called “The Mountains”. The Dobbin House was built near the Falls in 1858 and provided a popular lodge for visitors to the Falls during the 1860s and ‘70s. A published account of a May 1879 visit to the Falls by recreationalists further popularized the site. at BFSP, shot using long exposure photography At least four deaths have occurred at the falls. In 1933, a local was accidentally washed over the Falls during a flood. Rudolph Kendzior of Monongah, West Virginia, died cliff diving in 1937. In 1973, a couple were swept over the falls when a woman lost her footing on a slippery rock and her husband lost his balance while trying to catch her. Beginning in the early 1930s, various leases and donations to the state from the West Virginia Power and Transmission Company, later called Allegheny Power Systems, which then owned much of Blackwater Canyon, protected and facilitated tourism at the Falls. The first of these resulted in establishment and maintenance, by the West Virginia State Forest and Park Commission, of a scenic overlook at the head of the Canyon which included the celebrated Falls itself. A state park was formally established in 1937. Additional donations of land in 1953 and 1955 by the WVPTC,, and by the U.S. Forest Service,, in 1957, brought the total to some. The Park was day-use only until the mid-1950s. The years 1955 and ’56, however, saw several improvements to buildings and grounds including construction of 25 cabins, a dammed fishing/skating lake, and a 55-room lodge dubbed “The Lodge in the Sky” which was opened and dedicated in 1957. Annual visitors numbered 240,000 by 1960. In May 2000, West Virginia GovernorCecil Underwood purchased of Blackwater Canyon for $50,000 an acre and added it to Blackwater Falls State Park. Allegheny Wood Products, the timber company that owns about half of the Blackwater Canyon today, donated an additional. In January 2002, Governor Bob Wise bought an additional along the river upstream of the falls from Allegheny Power and added them to the park.
Fishing in Pendleton Lake and the Blackwater River
Accessibility
for the disabled was assessed by West Virginia University. While the park lodge is generally accessible, the 2005 assessment indicated some issues with telephone volume control, the height of door knobs, and excessive slope of certain ramps.
