CATHEDRAL STATE PARK
Natural — Aurora, West Virginia
Status: Operating · Access: Open to public
Dossier: https://haunthunt.com/place/cathedral-state-park-aurora-west-virginia/

The last stand of old-growth hemlock—West Virginia’s cathedral.

A natural site in Aurora, West Virginia, Cathedral State Park is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The last stand of old-growth hemlock—West Virginia’s cathedral. The archive files it under natural wonders and local folklore. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.

Cathedral State Park is the forest that was saved by stipulation — the 133 acres of virgin hemlock that Branson Haas sold to West Virginia in 1942 on the condition it never be cut. The oldest tree is 500 years old; the hemlock woolly adelgid arrived in 2002 and is killing them.
The forest was the resort's backyard — the Brookside Resort's 1882 mountain retreat for Washington and Baltimore visitors, the caretaker who bought the woods and protected them. The trees are the state's largest old-growth stand; the shade is cathedral-like.
The park is still there — the National Natural Landmark, the trails under the 500-year hemlocks, the adelgid that's the forest's threat. The file keeps the forest: the resort, the caretaker's stipulation, and the old growth that's still standing.
Cathedral State Park is the archive's forest file — the virgin hemlock, the caretaker's condition, and the old growth that's the state's largest.

WHY THIS FILE MATTERS
Cathedral State Park is the archive's forest file — the uncut hemlock, the Brookside caretaker, and the old growth that's under threat.
A forest saved by a condition keeps its trees — the file's suggestion being that Cathedral's hold is Haas's stipulation: the never-cut clause, the 500-year hemlocks, and the adelgid that's testing the covenant.

FILED CLAIMS — 1 on record, reported not verified
· [Anecdotal] apparition: Reported a presence among the ancient trees. The landscape at Cathedral State Park is the claim's whole setting: West Virginia wilderness with a name for the unexplained. Witness accounts, no evidence file: the claim is anecdotal and stays that way. 'Cathedral State Park' carries the account. Whatever walks there, it walks often enough to keep the reports coming.
  source: Cathedral State Park (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_State_Park)

HISTORY — 1 documented facts
· [1942] The old-growth hemlock stand is documented; a park since 1942. The landscape's recorded history gives the file real substance underneath the lore. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The detail is preserved in 'Cathedral State Park'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.

SOURCES — 1 cited
· Cathedral State Park — Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_State_Park

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HauntHunt is a research archive. Claims are filed as reported — documented where sources exist, marked as folklore or unverified where they do not.
Methodology: https://haunthunt.com/methodology/ · Corrections: https://haunthunt.com/report/