GLEN JEAN, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Officials with New River Gorge National Park & Preserve (NRGNPP) are seeking information on a fire that destroyed a historic barn at the Richmond-Hamilton farm site along River Road between Hinton and Sandstone Falls.
Information can be reported by calling NPS dispatch at 304-547-3590, or emailing the park at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve
Tips, including anonymous tips, can be submitted to NPS by calling 888-653-0009, or clicking on the following links NPS Tip Line or Crime Stoppers of West Virginia (crimestopperswv.com).
The fire was reported around 8:00 pm on Thursday, February 22 with response from park law enforcement rangers, Summers County Volunteer Fire Department, and Jumping Branch/Nimitz Station #31.
Firefighters worked to contain the blaze, however, the historic building was engulfed and totally lost.
One of nine structures at the site, the barn was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The old log barn was one of two at the site built from chestnut with hand-hewn logs and half-dovetail notching.
The Richmond Hamilton Farm is one of a handful of examples in the park preserved to showcase subsistence farming along the New River.
The original Revolutionary War veteran land grant in this area of the New River was granted in 1796, to William Richmond, on a tract of land near the present-day Sandstone Falls (originally called Richmond’s Falls).
The Richmond Hamilton site is also centerpiece to the park’s planned activities for the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.