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CREATE WEST VIRGINIA
Aurora Project working to revive Preston County
In a recent Wonderful West Virginia article, writer/artist Colleen Anderson declared, "There are places of power and magic on this Earth." She claims one is in Preston County's old-growth forest known as Cathedral State Park, east of the village of Aurora on the old Northwestern Turnpike now known as U.S. 50.
Perhaps that's why communities have waxed and waned in the area beginning as early as 1790 when Lutherans gathered in what they envisioned would become Mt. Carmel, a county seat. A hundred years later, Aurora thrived with mountain resort hotels and guest houses. In the 1930s, geologist Frank Reeves and his wife Lottie, who, according to Anderson, "attracted and craved the company of intellectuals," bought land there and began constructing cottages from dying American chestnut trees. Many artists found their way there to wait out the Depression in the Reeves' "Youghiogheny Forest."
The latest visionaries to fall under the Aurora spell have formed the nonprofit Aurora Project. They are reviving vintage buildings to accommodate an artists' residency similar to New England's MacDowell or Millay colonies, planning housing and studio space for as many as 14 artists for three- to six-week residencies. Two writers' retreats have been accomplished; a third is coming up Nov. 5-8. For information, go to www.auroraproject.org.
