MARY DRAPER INGLES TRAIL (MDIT)
ON WINFIELD-AEP PROPERTY
ABOUT THIS TRAIL
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MDIT on Winfield-AEP Property
This is a six-mile segment of the Mary Draper Ingles Trail. It follows a series of ridges overlooking the Kanawha River in Putnam Couny, WV. The trail follows along the approximate path that Mary Ingles took in maker her epic, 45—mile escape from Shawnee captivity in 1755.
The trail covers a variety of terrain types, and offers views of the Kanawha River at several points.
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AEP Support for the trail
This segment of the Marty Draper Ingles Trail stretches across land owned by American Electric Power, and is situated across WV 817 from AEP’s John Amos Power Plant.
AEP personnel built the trailhead facilities for the trail. The South Trailhead is near Bills Creek, just off W.Va. 817 a short distance north of the John Amos plant. The North Trailhead is just south of Winfield WV near AEP's Wetlands of Winfield nature preserve.
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Difficulty Level for Hikers
“It's not the easiest trail to walk, or the hardest, either It goes over hills and across creeks and gets you back into the woods. It's probably very like the terrain Mary Draper Ingles traveled through.”
- Doug Wood, president of the Mary Ingles Trail Blazers Chapter of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association
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Lat/Lon: 38°28'44.17"N/ 81°50'13.25"W
Decimal degrees: 38.478936°/ -81.837014°
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At the bottom of the ramp, turn Left to travel West on WV Rt. 817 (old Rt. 35) toward Winfield.
Go 3.2 miles from the I-64 exit ramp. Pass the main entrance to the John E. Amos Power Plant on the Right. Pass Bills Creek Road on the Look on the Left for a paved driveway that turns back off Rt. 817 and heads up an incline.
Turn left up that driveway. Go to the parking area for the South Trailhead.
Note: The trailhead driveway is just a few yards before the driveway on the Left that leads to GEF Fabricators (large GEF sign beside road).
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Travel toward Winfield to the junction of WV Rt. 34 and WV Rt. 817.
Travel east on Rt. 817 through the town of Winfield. Look for Winfield High School on the Left.
From the entryway into the High School, travel 4.3 miles.
Pass GEF Fabricators. Look on the Right for the paved driveway that heads up an incline.
Turn right up that driveway. Go to the parking area for the South Trailhead.
Note: The trailhead driveway is just a few yards beyond the driveway on the Right that leads to GEF (large GEF sign beside road).
SOUTH TRAILHEAD
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Lat/Lon: 38°31'22.48"N/ 81°51'42.16"W
Decimal degrees: 38.522912°/ -81.861710°
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At the bottom of the ramp, turn Left to travel West on WV Rt. 817 (old Rt. 35) toward Winfield.
Go 6.5 miles from the I-64 exit ramp. Pass the Twin River log yard on the Left. After a few hundred yards, look on the left for the gravel entryway to the trailhead parking area.
There is a very large sign for the town of Winfield just beyond the trailhead entryway (image of General Winfield Scott).
Be cautious! The turnoff from Rt. 817 can be tricky with high-speed traffic and a narrow entryway.
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Travel toward Winfield to the junction of WV Rt. 34 and WV Rt. 817.
Travel east on Rt. 817 through the town of Winfield. Look for Winfield High School on the Left.
From the entryway into the High School, travel 1.3 miles. Look on the right for the gravel entryway to the North Trailhead parking area.
If you pass the Twin River log yard, then you have gone too far by a few hundred yards.
Be cautious! The turnoff from Rt. 817 can be tricky with high-speed traffic and a narrow entryway.
NORTH TRAILHEAD
MDIT On Winfield-AEP Property
Trail Map
To display a larger image, click on the image above.
To display a printable map, click here.
TRAILHEAD DEDICATION PHOTOS
Photos below were taken at the trailhead dedication - October 2011 - of the section of the Mary Draper Ingles Trail (MDIT)
located on Appalachian Electric Power property near Winfield, West Virginia.
TRAILHEAD DEDICATION ARTICLE
New stretch of Mary Ingles Trail opens in Putnam
Rick Steelhammer
October 12, 2011
Source: wvgazette.com/News/201110121771
WINFIELD, W.Va. -- A six-mile segment of the Mary Ingles Trail opened on Wednesday on a series of ridges overlooking the Kanawha River in Putnam County, along the approximate path the trail's namesake took in making her epic, 450-mile escape from Shawnee captivity in 1755.
The new trail segment stretches across land owned by American Electric Power, across W.Va. 817 from AEP's John Amos Power Plant.
"It's not the easiest trail to walk, or the hardest, either," said Doug Wood, president of the Mary Ingles Trail Blazers Chapter of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association. "It goes over hills and across creeks and gets you back into the woods. It's probably very like the terrain Mary Draper Ingles traveled through."
In 1755, during the French and Indian War, Ingles was a 23-year-old frontier wife living with her extended family at Drapers Meadow, near present-day Blacksburg, Va., when a Shawnee war party attacked the settlement. The pioneer woman's mother was among those killed in the raid, while Ingles, her two sons and a sister-in-law were among the settlers captured.
Ingles was separated from her boys and taken to a Shawnee settlement near the site of present-day Portsmouth, Ohio, and then on to Big Bone Lick in north-central Kentucky.
There, she and a captive from another settlement known to history as the Old Dutch Woman, managed to escape, and follow the Ohio, Kanawha and New rivers back to Drapers Meadow in a perilous 40-day trek.
Her journey "shows the type of grit the settlers had," said Mark Dempsey, vice president for external affairs for AEP, who was among those attending Wednesday's dedication ceremony. Dempsey said it was his hope that the trail, with interpretive signs telling the basics of the Mary Ingles story at each trailhead, would increase awareness of pioneer life in general, and Draper's journey in particular.
The Mary Ingles Trail Blazers organization is dedicated to memorializing Ingles' courageous journey, and establishing hiking trails along the approximate route followed in 1755. So far, trail segments have been established in Kanawha State Forest, in the New River Gorge National River, and on the AEP conservation tract in Putnam County.
AEP personnel built the trailhead facilities for the trail, one near Bills Creek, just off W.Va. 817 a short distance north of the John Amos plant, and the other just south of Winfield near AEP's Wetlands of Winfield nature preserve.
At 1 p.m. Nov. 13, Wood and other members of the Mary Ingles Trail Blazers will lead a public through-hike of the new trail, starting from the Wetlands of Winfield Trailhead.
The trail covers a variety of terrain types, and offers views of the Kanawha River at several points.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.