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A visitor to Ice Mountain in Hampshire County feels cold air coming out of “ice vents.” (Photo courtesy of Hampshire Historic)
NORTH RIVER MILLS, W.Va.—One of West Virginia’s most fascinating natural wonders, Ice Mountain, where winter ice can be found in crevices until summer, is now open to guided hikes year-round.
The mystery, long an enigma to scientists determined to discover how its “ice vents” worked, has been solved, although the phenomenon and the remarkable plant life it supports will likely draw visitors to Virginia’s eastern fringe. Western in the years to come.
Hikers visit Ice Mountain Reservation in Hampshire County, West Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Hampshire Historic)
Steve Bailes, a docent at the Ice Mountain preserve, which now protects the site, says theories about the cooling effect have changed over his lifetime.
Moving to North River Mills with his wife, Terry, in 1976, Bailes says they were told at the time that there was a possible ice reservoir within the mountain that would have been established during the last Ice Age, at least 25,000 years ago. .
“Maybe that’s what caused ice to form during the summer, why there was cold, almost freezing air during August,” Bailes says.
“It was thought that perhaps the North River falls under the mountain and, if so, the water that falls evaporates, creating cold air.”
One winter, a hunter discovered a crater on the top of the mountain that contained no snow. Bailes and others at the time thought there was a cavern rising from the cold vents at the bottom of the hill and out to the top.
“When it was warm, relatively cold air could fall through the bottom in winter and snow would form,” he says.
“Maybe the temperature was relatively warmer inside the mountain, so I could go up to the top and make it so there was no snow there.”
A USGS map shows the geography of Ice Mountain in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.
Finally, in 2003, West Virginia University student Kevin Andrews, working on his thesis with Professor Steve Kite, confirmed why ice forms and persists.
Andrews studied the mountain, trying to find evidence of ice inside, but instead found a thick layer of rocks, or talus fields, about 80 feet deep.
According to Andrews, Ice Mountain’s cooling effect comes from inside its thick talus slope, a mass of rock at the foot of the mountain that traps the cold.
In winter, cold air penetrates the talus and forms ice. Once the weather warms, air exits through cold vents along the bottom of the slope, keeping the ice frozen until early summer.
“He found no evidence of ice under there, no evidence of the river disappearing under the mountain, no evidence of any cavern that went from the bottom to the top,” Bailes says.
“All the old theories went out the window, but for me it was really exciting. He disproved all of our old theories, so he can start over and try to solve the mystery.”
Ice Mountain has not only attracted geologists, it also consistently attracts botanists, who routinely study plant life around ice vents.
Bailes says Ice Mountain features notable flora, such as dwarf dogwoods or blueberries, which are most often found near the Arctic Circle.
“There are so many mysteries about the mountain,” he says. “You look at this clump of leaves on the ground that looks like dogwood (and it is, it’s from the Cornus family!), but it never becomes a tree; They are right on the ground.
“I’ve taken people who have been to Alaska, the Arctic Circle, and Nova Scotia, and they said they saw these same plants around the Arctic Circle, and that’s where they would normally be, either there or at a much higher elevation.”
The twinflowers and blueberries found at the foot of the mountain are also often found at higher elevations, such as Dolly Sods. However, the vents along the foot of Ice Mountain only reach a height of 1,230 feet, while the sods rise to more than 4,000.
Native Americans and early settlers utilized the mountain’s natural cooling, earning it several nicknames. Journalist David Hunter Strother, often writing under the name Porte Crayon, wrote and studied about Ice Mountain in the 1840s, creating wood sketches of the mountain and its slope.
“To me, it’s cool to think that he enjoyed the same opinions that we do today,” Bailes says.
The Nature Conservancy preserves Ice Mountain
In 1989, The Nature Conservancy purchased Ice Mountain and established a 149-acre preserve, designated a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Park Service in 2012.
The organization now offers free weekly guided hikes to Ice Mountain year-round, where visitors can explore with trained docents. The walks must be done with a registered docent and Bailes says they get about 800 visitors a year.
Mike Powell, the organization’s director of land stewardship and stewardship, says the mountain needs to be protected because of climate change.
“Ice Mountain is an important place where our connected and resilient network approach to conserving a network of lands in Appalachia to allow species to move up and north as the climate changes,” Powell says.
“With that unique cooling feature found on Ice Mountain, it provides a unique and suitable habitat as species try to move and respond to climate change.”
Terry Bailes, who leads tours with her husband, Steve, agrees that preserving and protecting the mountain is essential for many reasons, but it’s also personal for her family.
“It’s our backyard,” he says. “We bought right across from Ice Mountain. When it came up for sale, before The Nature Conservancy bought it, the idea was to put a tram to the top and then put some kind of restaurant on top of the mountain, which of course, would have ruined everything.
“It’s really, really weird,” Bailes said. “The plants are very rare and are absolutely beautiful. “I love leading a band because they see it for the first time and I get to see it through their eyes, and that’s always a lot of fun.”
Ice Mountain is located near North River Mills on Cold Stream Road between Slanesville and Capon Bridge, West Virginia. To arrange tours, contact Steve and Terry Bailes at 304-469-7359 or bailessteve@yahoo.com.
For more information, visit Ice Mountain Preserve or Historic Hampshire.
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