Four on the River

Before the construction of the Tygart Dam there where four small communities located within the valley that is now engulfed by the lake. The first, Yates, was located near the modern day swimming area of Tygart Lake. Stonehouse was the second located a little further up the lake about two coves down from Yates. The third was called Cecil and may have been the largest of four communities according to my preliminary research and it was located in modern day Hailslip Cove. Cecil as a whole my not have been swallowed up by the lake, however, it seemed to have disappeared from the maps after the forming of the lake. The fourth small town was referred to as Sandy and was located close to the lakes head waters. It appears to have been located around the line where the lake flows from Barbour into Taylor County. It is unclear thus far in my research if these locations where small towns or only small groupings of houses but what is clear is that they where once real places where people lived there lives.




As you can see I have added a map to give a better idea of the locations of these towns. I researched and found the coordinates of all four communities using the U.S. Department of Interior's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).