Planned overlook could leverage increased tourism
Apr. 25—Thumbs up to those developing plans for the Piney Creek Gorge in Beckley, including a potential overlook and visitor center that could position the city as a gateway to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.
You may have heard, the national park is a tourism hit. In 2023, according to the national park system, the Gorge counted a record 1.7 million visitors, beating the previous high in 2021. The park is one of the nation's newest, being added in 2020.
The peak months at the Gorge are the summer months of June, July and August, with more than 200,000 visitors stopping by each month. A good many of those are coming through and staying in Beckley. So, yes, seems appropriate that the city and civic leaders would want to leverage that advantage with attractions in keeping with the character of the city. Further development of the entire Piney Creek area is essential if the city wants to become known as at outdoor destination.
City Councilman Tom Sopher, who is a member of an ad hoc committee with the Beckley Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce where plans have been discussed, said the overlook along the East Beckley Bypass, also known as Clarence W. Meadows Memorial Boulevard, is "going to be a big deal. It's going to be fantastic."
We, too, believe that it can be just that and look forward to regular updates so that citizens can stay abreast of developments, designs and proposed costs.
----Is it too much to expect political leaders to get their stories straight?
Speaking at an event in Pennsylvania last week, President Joe Biden said that his uncle, Ambrose J. Finnegan, an Army Air Corps aviator, had been "shot down in New Guinea."
It gets better.
"They never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea," the president said.
It's not just that this was yet another embarrassing gaffe for which this president has become famous, but that the accuracy of his telling has been checked and, well, not everything seems to square up. Clearly, this is not a pressing geopolitical concern where lives and democracies hang in the balance. But it feeds the narrative that the president is not up to snuff mentally, that he is showing the effects that old age can play on the mind, that the U.S. is being led by someone who, to be kind, is not as mentally sharp as the job demands.
In fact, U.S. military records about Finnegan's death make no mention of the aircraft's being shot down or of cannibalism for that matter, saying only that the plane was forced to ditch in the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea for unknown reasons and that the three men killed in the crash were never found.
Regardless, the prime minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, felt obliged to defend his Pacific Island nation after the insult.
What is true is that the Asia-Pacific theater of war saw heavy fighting during World War II, and the remains of bodies, plane wrecks, shipwrecks and bombs still litter Papua New Guinea and other countries seven decades later. Marape pointed out that residents live in fear of being killed by unexploded ordnance.
What also is true is that tens of thousands of brave U.S. soldiers — 41,592 U.S. Army soldiers and 23,160 U.S. Marines and sailors — died fighting in the Pacific theater. Their courage and bravery need no strange and false embellishment.
Thumbs down, Mr. President. And from here on out, stick to the script. — By J. Damon Cain, editor, The Register-Herald
----Thumbs up to Billy F. Garretson, 83, of Beckley, who finally received his high school diploma during the April 23 Raleigh County Board of Education meeting.
Before completing his senior year of high school in Beckley, Garretson left to join the U.S. Army, serving from 1958 to 1964.
Though he graduated from a military academy, worked as a minister for 43 years, retired from General Motors and The Pittston & Brinks Company, and earned other educational certificates, a high school diploma always eluded him.
"I wanted to have that last diploma because I'd finished 11 years, and I wanted that last year," he said.
----Thumbs up to volunteers from environmental clubs at WVU Tech and Woodrow Wilson High School, who joined forces during Earth Week for a community cleanup along Beckley's Piney Creek Preserve, focusing on an area where a significant litter problem existed. The environmental clubs removed the litter to help preserve the natural beauty and environmental health of the area. The litter cleanup is organized by representatives from the city of Beckley and Beckley Outdoors, the WV Land Trust, and Piney Creek Watershed Association.
By Mary Catherine Brooks
of The Wyoming County Report
for The Register-Herald
