CALHOUN'S $30 MILLION 'WEST FORK LAKE' NEVER HAPPENED - What If It Had? Is It Shovel Ready?

(03/16/2026)

By Bob Weaver 1999 It was first on the table as a depression-era project and surfaced again in the 1970s - the West Fork Lake of the Little Kanawha River. Likely a million dollars was spent on studying the project, meaning several million in today's economy. The damming of the West Fork of the Little Kanawha River two miles above Creston would have created a huge body of water likely extending to Arnoldsburg, and up all the tributaries of the river. The flood control-recreation project was one of three proposed, the others being the Gilmer County Leading Creek dam and the Burnsville dam. Burnsville was built. A congressional press release in 1972 said, "If all goes well, the (West Fork) facility could be completed by 1977 or 1978." The estimated cost of the West Fork Lake was $30.6 million, with $700,000 spend on one study. In the Village of Hur, hilltop residents would have had waterfront property on Rowels Run, and if built, would likely be fishing off their docks in the 21st Century. All the press releases and millions in pre-construction planning for naught. What's left is thoughts of what life might have been in Sunny Cal if such a project had been developed.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001