PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Randolph County, created from Harrison County in 1787 and named for Virginia jurist/governor Edmund Jennings Randolph, is genuinely the LARGEST COUNTY IN WEST VIRGINIA by area; the county seat, Elkins, was founded in 1889 following the extension of the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg Railroad, established by businessman Henry Gassaway Davis and his son-in-law Stephen B. Elkins as headquarters for their new railroad; the city served as a major regional railroad, coal, and lumber hub for over 75 years; today Elkins hosts the headquarters of the Monongahela National Forest along with offices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and WV Division of Natural Resources, earning the county’s designation as the “Gateway to Monongahela National Forest”; Davis & Elkins College, founded 1904, remains a strong regional liberal arts institution, home to the renowned Augusta Heritage Center, whose Augusta Heritage Arts Workshops and Festival (April, July/August, October) draw major attendance; most notably, Elkins has hosted the Mountain State Forest Festival annually since 1930 – genuinely WEST VIRGINIA’S LARGEST AND OLDEST FESTIVAL, now spanning over a week with more than 100 events (opening/closing ceremonies, a Grand Feature Parade and Children’s Parade, ATV races, a carnival, the Coronation of Queen Silvia, a fiddle contest, lumberjack competitions, and more), drawing roughly 75,000 attendees each fall (with the Augusta Festival, combined regional visitor totals exceed 200,000 annually); the county also holds real Civil War history at the Rich Mountain and Laurel Hill battlegrounds, and includes Kumbrabow State Forest, Otter Creek Wilderness, and portions of Monongahela National Forest; the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad excursion train draws roughly 30,000 visitors a year; the Randolph County Courthouse and Jail (1902-04, Richardsonian Romanesque) in Elkins is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Notes: The Mountain State Forest Festival’s genuine, century-long status as West Virginia’s largest and oldest festival, plus the county’s status as WV’s largest by land area, are both verifiable, distinctive facts central to Randolph County’s identity.