WVFA Mountain State Forestry Winter 2021-22

F E A T U R E D N E W S 8 West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry | Winter 2021–22 www.wvfa.org History, Dr. Melissa Bingmann with its Bicentennial Committee, with an offer extended to students who might be interested in contributing original research as part of that celebration. Over the past several semesters, graduate students have visited Pocahontas County in search of valuable histories from the region. A visit to the town of Cass frequently prompts West Virginians to think about the role of the timber industry in the state’s economy, and it similarly inspired WVU graduate students. With the presence of the what was formerly the Pocahontas Supply Company standing prominently in the middle of the small haven of neat, white, company homes, the connection between industry and life in the forests of the Allegheny Highlands was clear. Looking for histories which reached below the surface of traditional narratives of extraction, researchers began to explore the world of the laboring logger and the cultural richness that came into the region alongside saws and axes. PhD candidate and curator of the Watts Museum, Danielle Petrak had an idea to develop a museum exhibit to explore the influence of the timber industry as preserved by the songs associated with people who lived and worked in the Allegheny Highlands during the height of the timber boom (1880–1930). Kristen Bailey, a third-year PhD student, and Andrew Linderman, a recent MA graduate, wrote and received a major grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council. Petrak guided an exhibition design class, and then worked closely with Bailey to develop research and a cohesive narrative for the project, thus Timber/Timbre: Falling Trees and Rising Voices—Music and Logging in West Virginia, 1880–1930, was born. “A visit to the town of Cass frequently prompts West Virginians to think about the role of the timber industry in the state’s economy, and it similarly inspired WVU graduate students. With the presence of the what was formerly the Pocahontas Supply Company standing prominently in the middle of the small haven of neat, white, company homes, the connection between industry and life in the forests of the Allegheny Highlands was clear.”