Following
the law that allowed integration in West Virginia schools, there was much
outrage throughout Greenbrier County. This was especially true in White Sulphur
Springs. At the high school, crudely painted signs stated “No Negroes Wanted in
Our Schhols.” On Monday, 300 of the 440 students of White Sulphur Spring went
to school. The African American children were threatened with bodily harm if
they came back to the “white” classrooms. As a result, Greenbier’s Board of
Education called off partial integration and declared all students return to the
schools the attended the previous year. The superintendent, Trent, refused to interact.
Trent stated, “…At the present time boards are free to act. I shall take
no action.” And as you can see in the photo of the progression of integration
of West Virginia in 1954, Greenbrier County is the only county in all Black.
This means that it was the only county that was delayed by protest. 

 During the meeting, white protesters shut off the lights and fired guns outside the church. A&nbsp;U.S. Supreme Court decision the following month placed more pressure on school systems which resisted desegregation. Consequently, all counties in West Virginia, including Greenbrier, began integrating schools by January 1956. However, White Sulphur Springs students voted to hold their prom in December instead of May to prevent African Americans from attending the annual affair held at The Greenbrier. Despite such incidents, the desegregation of West Virginia's public schools was less turbulent than most other southern states.

Progression of Integration in West Virginia, fall of 1954

On September 14, 1954, West Virginia NAACP Charleston Branch President Willard A. Brown spoke to African Americans at the White Sulphur Springs Baptist Church, concerning the decision of the Greenbrier County Board of Education to maintain segregated schools. 

1954 Protest Against Segregation at White Sulphur Springs Baptist Church

This tour of White Sulphur Springs begins with the Greenbrier Resort and its famous Old White Golf Course and the Cold War-era bunker located under the resort. The tour moves east to the include historical markers and landmarks within the community of White Sulphur Springs, including the recently-named street that honors NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson who was the subject of the book and Hollywood movie Hidden Figures. The tour concludes with the Oakhurst Links Golf Course which has been restored to match its 19th-century appearance complete with historic clothing and equipment for golfers. 

Driving Tour of White Sulphur Springs 

Admin

The first guest came to White Sulphur Springs in 1778. They visited the spring to “take the waters” and restore their health. It was in the 1830s the resort first became prominent. Politicians, judges, editors, lawyers, diplomats, ministers, planters and merchants, most who came from the South, made annual trips to meet at the “village in the wilderness”. Their trips to the resort took place during the summer. The reason for this is the 2,000 foot elevation of the resort which offered the travelers relief from the lowlands heat and humidity.Between 1830 and 1861 there were five sitting presidents who stayed at the resort. In 1858, due to White Sulphur Springs’ success the first large hotel, named the Grand Central Hotel (also known as “The Old White”) was constructed. From 1861-1865 the resort closed due to the Civil War. The grounds were occupied by both Union and Confederate troops who used the hotel as a hospital and military headquarters. Not long after the end of the war the resort reopened. Given its geographic location in the Appalachians, it was, and still is difficult to differentiate its allegiance between the North and the South. The newly built central hotel was a popular place for northerners and southerners alike to vacation. During the civil war, the hotel was nearly destroyed by changing ownership from the Confederate Army to the Union Army. When the Civil War ended, the resort reopened. Once again, it was a popular place for northerners and southerners to vacation. From a cultural standpoint, this is important to consider because many places were deemed either Northern OR Southern in culture and visitation. Most importantly, Robert E Lee delivered the White Sulphur Manifesto here which called for the unification of both societies, North and South, after the war.In 1873 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was completed and improved the resorts prospects. In an effort to expand, the C&amp;O purchased the resort property in 1910. The Greenbrier Hotel was added by the C&amp;O in 1913. They also added a Mineral Bath Department and an 18-hole golf course. Charles Blair, the most prominent contemporary golf architect of the time designed the golf course with is now called The Old White Course.In 1914 the Greenbrier opened for the first time year round. President Woodrow Wilson and his wife spent their holiday here while Joseph and Rose Kennedy travelled from Boston to spend their October honeymoon at The Greenbrier. In the 1920s The Greenbrier became a traveling network within high society. The network stretched all the way from Palm Beach, Florida to Newport, Rhode Island. In 1922 the Old White Hotel was removed from the property. Its removal led to the rebuilding of The Greenbrier Hotel in 1930. The renovation created more space, adding twice as many guest rooms which increased the number to 500. The hotel’s main entrance was redesigned by an architect from Cleveland, Ohio named Philip Small. Small added the Virginia Wing (inspired by Mount Vernon) and the North Entrance façade.In 1941, after the United States entry into World War II, the hotel was leased out to the U.S. State Department for seven months. German, Japanese, and Italian diplomats, along with their families, were moved from Washington, D.C. to The Greenbrier until exchanges for U.S. Diplomats stranded overseas were completed. A year later, in 1942 the U.S. Army purchased the hotel and converted it into a hospital with 2,000 beds. The hospital became known as Ashford General Hospital and over a four year period, over 24,000 soldiers were admitted and treated in the surgical and rehabilitation center.The C&amp;O Railway took the hotel back in 1946 after the U.S. government was done using it. The C&amp;O commissioned for the interior to be redecorated by a noted designed named Dorothy Draper. After its renovation The Greenbrier reopened in 1948. It was not long until the U.S. government would ask for The Greenbrier to assist them once again. In 1950 they ask the hotel to allow the construction of an Emergency Relocation Center (bunker or bomb shelter) for Congress to occupy in the event that a war broke out. The underground facility was built along with an above ground addition to the hotel called the West Virginia Wing. The bunker remained ready in case of an emergency for thirty years. The project was terminated in 1992 and the bunker decommissioned after the Cold War ended and the project was exposed by the press.The Greenbrier Course was redesigned in 1978 by Jack Nicklaus, allowing it to be ready for the 1979 Ryder Cup Matches. The course has also served as the venue for three PGA Senior tournaments in the 1980s and the Solheim Cup competition in 1994. In 1999 Bob Cupp redesigned, rerouted and upgraded the older Lakeside Course creating the new Meadows Course. The project also created a new Gold Academy. Custom designed home neighborhoods were created by the Greenbrier Sporting Club beginning in 2000. These homes included a panoramic view of the Allegheny Mountains. In 2004 the infinity edge outdoor pool was opened also offering a breathtaking view of the Allegheny’s.The Old White Course was revamped by Lester George who created a challenging new version of the old course in 2006. The Greenbrier changed ownership on May 7, 2009 when Jim Justice, an entrepreneur from West Virginia bought the resort from the CSX Corporation (successor of the Chessie System and the C&amp;O). In August 2009 construction was set to build a casino and The Casino Club at The Greenbrier opened on July 2, 2010. Also in 2010, Mr. Jim Justice arranged for the PGA Tour to be relocated with a multi-year contract under the name The Greenbrier Classic. The first Greenbrier Classic was held July 26-August 1, 2010.On March 28, 2011 The Old White became a Tournament Players Club Network course. The Greenbrier Champions Tennis Classic held in September 2012 was won by Pete Sampras. Two years later, in April 2014 Sampras was named The Greenbrier’s first Tennis Pro Emeritus. In July 2014, the New Orleans Saints relocated their training camp to The Greenbrier and in June 2015 the Center Court at Creekside professional tennis stadium was opened.

The Greenbrier Resort dates back to the late 18th century, when visitors to the area would "take the waters" of the local spring that contained minerals believed to restore health. In the years leading up to the Civil War, the resort was a gathering place for Southern politicians and hosted five sitting U.S. Presidents and influential families. 

Greenbrier Resort 

The Greenbrier Classic in White Sulphur Springs, West
Virginia is the only PGA golf site in the state of West Virginia. This course
was added to the PGA Tour in 2010 and has been a highlight to West Virginia tourist
and residents. &nbsp;This course replaced the
Buick Open in Flint, Michigan. As part of the golf event the Greenbrier Resort also
puts on a concert event each evening. 

The past Champions of the Greenbrier Classic are: Stuart
Appleby (2010), Scott Stallings (2011), Ted Potter, Jr. (2012) and defending
champion Joan Blixt (2013). Ángel Cabrera won the Greenbrier Classic in 2014.

The Greenbrier Resort, where the Greenbrier Classic takes
place is an award-winning resort. It has been open since 1778 and is a National
Historic Landmark. Guests at the Greenbrier will be treated with southern hospitality
as they take in the breath taking views of the Allegany Mountains.

Now home to the PGA's Greenbrier Classic, Old White is one of the oldest golf courses in the nation. Charles Blair Macdonal designed and opened the course in 1914. In 2010 the course was added to the PGA Tour, replacing the Buick Open in Flint, Michigan. The tournament is played in July each year and has a concert series that is put on each night by the Greenbrier Resort.  

Old White Golf Course

This expansive bunker is housed in
the historic Greenbrier resort. Founded in 1778, the hotel garnered recognition for the healing properties
of their sulfur springs. It gained prestige&nbsp;as important political
figures from the South began to come for yearly trips. During World War II the
resort was leased by the government to house foreign diplomats for several
months and was then converted into a hospital for four years – the hotel's first
stint as a government associate. It was then returned to commercial business 1948 and
transformed into a pro-golf resort.

In December of 1958 construction began on a government-funded Emergency Relocation Center designed to house part of Congress in case
of nuclear disaster during the Cold War. To avoid suspicion, the Greenbrier
Resort simultaneously built a new addition called the West Virginia Wing.

The bunker itself covers approximately 112,000 square
feet, and has walls made out of concrete two feet thick which were reinforced
with steel. The facility is wedged 750
feet into the hillside, helping to mask its presence and offer protection from
missiles. There were four blast doors, the largest measuring fifteen feet high,
twelve feet wide, and nineteen and a half inches thick; it&nbsp;weighs about 28
tons. A grand total of $14 million&nbsp; was spent on construction of the bunker and the West Virginia Wing.

Numerous rooms were built to accommodate Congress,
including space to live and work.&nbsp; The
thick blast doors lead to 18 dormitories which can accommodate 1,100 people,
several decontamination chambers, a cafeteria, a pharmacy, a clinic with 12
hospital beds, meeting rooms for the House and Senate, a power plant with purification
equipment, three 25,000 gallon water storage tanks, three 14,000 gallon diesel
fuel storage tanks and a communications area that includes a TV production
studio and audio-recording booths.

Once completed in 1961, the hotel kept the bunker
stocked with supplies and food for 30 years. Food trucks would come in the dead
of night, and drivers were told they were just delivering food for the hotel. The
delivery men backed their trucks up into the first section of the bunker to
unload their food; this was all they saw of the bunker. The others that worked
and maintained the bunker were told to blend in with the community, to avoid rousing suspicion. The men and women
who ran the bunker worked undercover as hotel employees.

In its thirty years as an up kept, commissioned
government bunker, the closest the Greenbrier Bunker ever came to being used
was in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis,yet it was never put into action. The hidden fortress remained a secret until May 31,
1992, when The Washington Post published
an article exposing the facility. After the article’s release, the Greenbrier
lost its contract with the government and the bunker was decommissioned. Today
the bunker is no longer used by the government, but West Virginia’s nuclear
safe house is now available for public and private tours.&nbsp;

Hidden in the rolling hills of West Virginia, the United States Congress built a secret nuclear bunker within the nationally acclaimed Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. In light of the Cold War, Congress moved to build this extensive bunker where they could be protected from a nuclear disaster. After the war, pressure from the media led to the location of the bunker to be revealed. The resort has since opened the bunker for tours. 

The Greenbrier Bunker

Katherine Coleman Johnson was born in the town of White Sulphur Springs on August 26, 1918. From a young age, her parents noticed that young Katherine was&nbsp;gifted in mathematics. After finishing high school at 15, Johnson attended college classes at the&nbsp;historically Black West Virginia State College, where she double-majored in Mathematics and French. She completed both bachelors degrees at the age of 18. Johnson&nbsp;was chosen as one of the first three African American students to attend West Virginia University when West Virginia integrated its graduate schools in 1939, making history in the Civil Rights movement. She was the first Black female to attend West Virginia University, where she pursued a graduate degree in mathematics. Johnson found West Virginia University&nbsp;more hostile than West Virginia State College. She learned of a job opening at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in an all-Black section, where she began working in 1953. Johnson's incredible math skills and her work on flight test data was needed several years later as NASA undertook the task of putting astronaut John Glenn into orbit.&nbsp;Glenn himself told the team to&nbsp;"get the girl" to hand-check the equations the computers had worked out just prior to his launch into orbit.2 The&nbsp;computers that had been used to calculate the math needed to send spacecraft into orbit&nbsp;were still in infancy stages, and were erratic at times. Johnson's accuracy was often called upon to identify and&nbsp;prevent malfunctions. Her work helped make the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing a success, and she&nbsp;was part of the team&nbsp;responsible for safely returning the Apollo 13 spacecraft when it malfunctioned in space. Johnson's long list of achievements&nbsp;led her to receive a number of honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in&nbsp;2015. NASA awarded her with the Lunar Orbiter Award, three NASA Special Achievement Awards, and she was chosen as Mathematician of the Year in 1997. As stated by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, "Katherine's legacy is a big part of the reason that my fellow astronauts and I were able to get to space; it's also a big part of the reason that today there is space for women and African-Americans in the leadership of our nation, including the White House."&nbsp; As of May 26th, 2017, the street between the White Sulphur Springs Public Library and the St. Thomas Episcopal Church is named Katherine Coleman Johnson Way. The street was selected because Johnson's father worked at the city library in its previous location, and because the library was an important part of the future mathematician's life. Johnson lived on Church Street in White Sulphur Springs until she was 10 years old. Mayor Lloyd Haynes called Johnson "one of the best-kept secrets ever," as Johnson's contributions to NASA, mathematics, women's rights, and the Civil Rights Movement were widely unknown until the release of the book and film "Hidden Figures." The small&nbsp;ceremony commemorating the dedication of Katherine Coleman Johnson capped off a series of honors following the public's growing interest in her life following the popularity of the Hollywood film "Hidden Figures."&nbsp;The state of West Virginia now celebrates&nbsp;the 26th of August as Katherine Johnson Day.&nbsp;

On May 26, 2017, the city of White Sulphur Springs declared this previously unnamed street in honor of NASA mathematician Katherine Coleman Johnson. Now known as "Katherine Coleman Johnson Way," this street the leads to the city library honors the life of the mathematician from White Sulphur Springs whose contributions to the American space program were highlighted in the movie "Hidden Figures." Katherine Coleman was born in White Sulphur Springs and demonstrated an incredible aptitude for math. Johnson quickly earned a degree in mathematics from West Virginia State University and became one of the first three African American graduate students to be admitted to West Virginia University in 1939. Her work for NASA in the 1950s played a critical role in the calculations needed to place spacecraft into orbit, and later, on the Moon. Johnson was awarded many honors for her work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2016, the film "Hidden Figures" detailed her contributions to NASA. 

Katherine Coleman Johnson Way

Project Background: 

In
American culture, the automobile has long since been a symbol of freedom and
mobility for Americans everywhere. In the 1930’s and due to the rising
African-American middle class, Victor Hugo Green, New Yorker and U.S. mailman,
saw a need for a travel guide for the Black community and created the first edition
of the Negro Motorist Green Book
(NMGB) which was first published in 1936. According to the 1940 edition, “there
were thousands of ‘sundown towns,’ towns where African Americans were barred
from spending the night…at all”; therefore, the NMGB was a vital tool for the
Black community throughout the U.S. for decades until the “civil rights laws of
the 60’s brought about the end of legal segregation.” Although Green was able
to expand his book to a successful travel reservation business, he also hoped for
a time when the book would not be necessary for the Black community. 

&nbsp;

According
to Dr. Wallace Best who is a professor of Religion and African American Studies
at Princeton University, “a Black body in motion is
never without consequence. It is always a signifier of something, scripted and
coded. And for the most part, throughout our history Black bodies in motion
have been deemed a threat” (“The Fear of Black Bodies in Motion”). Best is
writing of Black bodies of the past, those who were part of the Great Migration
and the movement toward freedom for the Black race, and of the present; Best
mentions certain names like Michael Brown and Levar Jones, victims of police
brutality, whose fates have fueled the current Black Lives Matter Movement. It
is obvious that Green was aware that Black bodies in motion appeared to be a
threat to white society, but he was also aware that this idea of a Black body
as a threat meant there would be plenty of potential threats waiting for Black
travelers if they did not have the information they needed. Although Green
never explicitly alluded to potential dangers nor the Black family’s own fear
to travel as he explained the usefulness of his book, the Negro Motorist Green Book did in fact attempt to alleviate the
chance of any danger, fear, or embarrassment for its users. 

&nbsp;

A
children’s book titled Ruth and the Green
Book (2010) was written by Calvin A. Ramsey and provides a fictional
account of a young girl and her family traveling in the 1950’s from her home in
Chicago to her grandmother’s house in rural Alabama. In the book, the family
uses the NMGB to help them navigate
their travels to avoid danger and/or embarrassment due to racism, while also
finding places where they could enjoy themselves during their trip and along the
way.

 Continuing the Project:

This
project of incorporating the Negro
Motorist Green Book locations into the Clio
entries of West Virginia started at Marshall University and was the result of a
course project assigned by English Professor, Dr. Kristen Lillvis, in her class
titled ENG 628 Twentieth-Century African American Literature: #Blacklivesmatter.
This project is currently employing the addresses located in two copies of the NMGB (1940 and 1954) to site and pin
potential locations where these businesses and establishments may have actually
existed according to various editions of the book. This project intends to
promote awareness of such an empowering aspect of the Black community’s history
in American society that goes overlooked and unknown to most. However, this is
only a start, as this project could evolve into an even greater opportunity to
research and locate actual buildings and establishments in West Virginia that
have served, during the Jim Crow Era, as “pleasure resorts,” as Green wrote in
the 1940 edition for the Black American community (2). According to Candacy Taylor, a writer, photographer and cultural
critic, it has been estimated “that less than one-third of these sites are
still standing.” Taylor is currently working on a project in Los Angeles to
locate establishments listed in the NMGB and views “these buildings as physical
evidence of racial discrimination [and her project as a] rich opportunity to
re-examine America’s troubled history of segregation, Black migration and the
rise of the Black leisure class.” In a state that made its name based on its refusal
to participate in the slavery of another human being, I feel uncovering these
buildings of our past will provide insight for our future as a people and as a
state. 

&nbsp;

West
Virginia cities in which establishments offered services to Black travelers
(1940 Ed.):

<ul><li>Beckley,
Bluefield, Charleston, Fairmont, Huntington, Harpers Ferry, Welch, Wheeling </li></ul>

West
Virginia cities in which establishments offered services to Black travelers
(1954 Ed.):

<ul><li>Beckley,
Bluefield, Charleston, Chester, Clarksburg, Fairmont, Grafton, Hinton,
Huntington , Institute, Keystone, Kimball, Montgomery, Morgantown, Moundsville,
Northfork, Parkersburg, Princeton, Weirton, Welch, Wheeling, White Sulphur
Springs, Williamson </li></ul>

Map
highlighting establishments offering services to Black travelers throughout the
U.S. (1956 Ed.):

<ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Dh4EC0glByrNgb95JJpHrcMKiOs&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=37.82619039911634%2C-83.72298254687496&amp;z=9">www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Dh4EC0glByrNgb95JJpHrcMKiOs&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=37.82619039911634%2C-83.72298...</a></li></ul>

Other
editions of the book ranging from the 30’s to the late 60’s can be found in the
NYPL Digital Collections: 

<ul><li>&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=about">https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=about</a></li></ul>

This location/address (138 Church Street) was listed as an inn for African American travelers in the 1954 Negro Motorist Green Book, a travelers guide that was essential due to racial discrimination. The book was shared among members in the Black community informing them of remaining segregated businesses and towns; however, the book itself was an empowering tool for the Black community which enabled mobility and also provided safety for those traveling throughout the United States. 

Brooks' Lodgings (circa 1954)

After two years of defeats and setbacks, in the span of a few short months in 1863 the balance of the American Civil War shifted and Union forces at last gained the upper hand over the armies of the Confederate States. On June 20, 1863, the fifty-five counties of West Virginia were partitioned off from Virginia and became a new state within the Union. On July 3, the Union army in the eastern theater of war decisively defeated General Robert E. Lee’s seemingly invincible Confederate Army at Gettysburg, and on July 4, Ulysses S. Grant’s western army took control of Vicksburg, establishing unbroken Union control of the Mississippi River and cutting the Confederacy in twain. The newborn state of West Virginia needed law books to establish its new state courts, however, copies of which could only be obtained from a repository in Lewisburg--in Confederate-held Greenbrier County. Union cavalry commander General William Woods Averell, a career military officer, was given the task on August 12. Recently made a scapegoat for General Joseph Hooker’s disastrous defeat at Chancellorsville a few months before, Averell had only been reassigned to his new command in late May 1863, but in a few short weeks drilled 1,300 West Virginia and Pennsylvania cavalrymen into an effective fighting unit.Averell’s force, the Fourth Separate Brigade, soon headed southward from Petersburg, Virginia, criss-crossing the state line on its route toward Lewisburg while making detours to destroy bridges of the Virginia &amp; Tennessee Railroad and saltpeter works near Franklin. Their march was beset from dawn to dusk by guerillas and bushwackers, who fired at the long columnn of cavalry from concealment. Also attempting to delay Averell’s advance was a small force of Confederates under William Lowther “Mudwall” Jackson, a cousin of the famous Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson who had been killed at Chancellorsville that May. Mudwall and his troops, however, were soon brushed out of the way as Averell pushed southward from Warm Springs, Virginia.Confederate resistance in the region, however, soon began to take shape. Along with various commands scattered around the Shenandoah Valley and southward, a force stationed in Lewisburg under the command of Colonel George S. Patton (grandfather of the famous World War II general) was ordered northward to make contact with the elusive Averell. As Averell’s position and objectives were unknown to the Confederates on August 25, the Union troops nearly slipped past Patton’s men--but at 2am on August 26, Patton received updates on Averell’s line of advance, and quickly ordered a forced march back toward White Sulphur Springs.Shortly after dawn, Averell’s advance guard emerged from “Rocky Gap,” a narrow defile whose steep sides prevented any flanking movements around the strong defensive positions Patton by then occupied with a force similar in size to that of Averell. The Union commander formed rapidly up for an attack all along Patton’s line, pushing forward fresh troops all day in a series of costly advances. Patton’s men, protected behind barricades of wooden fenceposts, suffered less, but it was far from an easy fight. Indeed. Finally at 4pm, after hours of attack and counterattack along the length of the line, Averell ordered a mounted charge by a company of Pennsylvania troopers:<blockquote>“This brave body of men made one of the most daring charges of the war, not only facing a murderous storm of leaden hail from the front but also, to their surprise, received an enfilading fire along their flank from a large body of infantry concealed in a cornfield to the left of the road. On they dashed, regardless of death and danger, and reached the breastworks of felled trees and fence rails thrown across the road.”1</blockquote>Three hundred Confederates fled before the charge, but additional forces rallied and annihilated the charge before it could break the back of Patton’s line. Averell also ordered the rest of his line to support the charge, along with a second mounted assault by more Pennsylvanians. All were repulsed with heavy losses. Another mounted charge was made later in the evening, also doomed to fail. Fighting died down with darkness. Both sides had nearly exhausted their ammunition, and slept in their battle lines only 300 yards apart.The commanders of both sides, unbeknownst to each other, elected to stay and fight the next morning. For Averell, a night attempt to withdraw would have been confused and disastrous. He had also been promised reinforcements and ammunition from Union garrisons on the march from the Kanawha Valley.Instead, it was Patton who received five cavalry companies during the night. As dawn broke, Averell saw his enemy reinforced in strength, with no word from the Union troops supposedly on their way. Averell chose to retreat, a contingency for which he had vigorously prepared during the night, including sending out men to chop through the trunks of trees along his line of withdrawal, so that after his troops passed the trees could be felled with just a few axe strokes. This proved instrumental in delaying Confederate pursuit and allowing his command to extricate itself in an exhausting fighting withdrawal beset by detachments of Rebel cavalry and bushwackers. The campaign was bloody for such small forces involved, with 218 casualties from Averell’s 1,300-man brigade and 167 from Patton’s total of 2,000.Though the battle bought a reprieve for Confederate control of southeast West Virginia (the law books in Lewisburg were moved to Richmond for safekeeping), the victory was short-lived. Averall was back in November at the head of a new raid, and swept aside the last organized Confederate resistance in the state at the Battle of Droop Mountain.Part of the battlefield resides on the present-day grounds of the Greenbrier Resort, where some of the fallen soldiers’ graves can also be found. Three markers near Route 60 tell a fraction of the battle’s story, and nearby the Miller House still stands on private property, bearing the scars of bullets, small arms, and the impact of a ten-pound solid shot.

On August 26th, 1863, Union cavalry under the command of General William Woods Averell clashed with Confederate troops led by Colonel George S. Patton in Greenbrier County--only two months after West Virginia achieved statehood by “seceding” from Virginia. Its nascent statehood was, in fact, the cause of the battle, as Averell’s 1,300 men had been ordered to secure law books from the Virginia State Supreme Court in Rebel-held Lewisburg. The fierce fight that followed was, for its size, spectacularly bloody, and involved one of the few “classic” cavalry charges of the American Civil War, in the style of the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s. Now named for the nearby town of White Sulphur Springs, the battle has also been known by a multitude of other titles, including the Battle of Dry Creek, Howard Creek, Rocky Gap, and "The Battle of the Law Books."

Battle of White Sulphur Springs / Battle of Dry Creek

In 1884, Oakhurst Links Golf Course was designed, built and owned by Russell Montague. The Oakhurst course was the first golf course to be built in America. Montague lived on the property and used a 30 acre pasture for the nine hole layout. Having learned about golf in Scotland, he brought his knowledge to the small town of White Sulphur Springs. In 1888, the first match was played on the course with Montague's friends in the traditional Scottish style.1In 1912, the course was returned to pasture and was not used again until 1994. A restoration of the course took place and reopened for play managed by the Ironwood Golf Group. The course featured a unique style of attire and equipment required when playing here. Knickers, high socks, long sleeve shirts and ties are to be worn by the men and colonial style dresses for the women. The clubs are hickory and the golf balls are gutta-percha. This requirement for the course gives you a feeling of how the game was played when it was first built.   "Owner Lewis Keller reportedly bought the course as a horse farm in 1959, but restored it after learning about its history."2 Keller used sheep to mow the grass like they did when it was first built. He added sand tee boxes and only had old newspaper clippings to go by in the restoration. "The National Hickory Championship has been held at Oakhurst since 1998."3  In 2012, Oakhurst Links went up for sale after 50 years of having the same owner, and later that same year the Greenbrier Resort purchased it. "Financing for a $410,000 winning bid from a July 28 auction fell through and a heartbroken Keller feared a Virginia bank would foreclose on the property and its history would fall apart -- until Jim Justice, the Greenbrier owner, came along." 4  The Greenbrier has added Oakhurst to its long list of amenities. The hotel will help to bring the golf course towards the popularity it deserves predating all other courses in America. The history of Oakhurst Links Golf Course will place guests into a historical past with the attire and equipment that is recommended to use in order to take in the full experience. Parties and events would also give a historical feeling when participating and knowing this is where America got its start in golf.

In 1884, The Oakhurst Links Golf Course was designed and built, making it the oldest golf course in America.  The nine hole course was used until 1912, when it reverted back to a pasture.  In 1994, the course underwent a restoration and golf was being played once again on this historical site.  In 2001, the course was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Driving Tour of White Sulphur Springs

1954 Protest Against Segregation at White Sulphur Springs Baptist Church

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources