Cathedral State Park

We started our Tour de West Virginia today with a visit to Cathedral State Park in Aurora, West Virginia. Cathedral is one of only two virgin forests stands in West Virginia and is primarily made up of hemlock trees.                                                      



Cathedral State Park is in existence because Mr. Branson Haas decided to set aside a portion of his property as virgin forest for future generations to enjoy. He sold the property to the state in 1942.

When you think about a virgin forest, most people get a vision of the hundreds feet tall giant sequoias that you can drive a car through in California. That isn't what you will find at Cathedral. Hemlock's normally grow to 60-70 feet tall. Trees in this park are reported to exceed 90 feet tall. The sample trees we measured were more in the 60 foot range.



This region is in an ideal habitat for the hemlock as they thrive in elevations above 2000 feet  and this area varies from 2,460 to 2,620 feet. The thick tree canopy you can see above serves to strangle most all vegetation from the forest floor except mosses, ferns and fungus. Upon testing the soil on the forest floor using the LabQuest PH probe, we found the soil to be acidic with a PH of between 3.5 and 4.0. The hemlock likes to live in acidic soil and the tannins in its bark also add to the acidity. The hemlock is also known as Leather Bark because the tanning industry formerly used the hemlocks bark in the leather tanning process.

 

We calculated the board feet of a tree at N 39 degrees 14.593 minutes and W 079 degrees 32.213 minutes.  We did this by measuring the diameter of the tree and entering it into our tables to figure the circumference and diameter. We then used our clinometer app to figure the height of the tree. From there we were able to determine the board feet available for lumber and the estimated value of the trees lumber. We determined our tree an a value of $4,610.00.


The largest hemlock in the park, the centennial hemlock, was struck by lightning in 2004. Its 20 foot high stump remains. its diameter is in excess of five feet.