Chicken 🐔 Barns Between Sugar Grove and Brandywine
Back roads of West Virginia, where a lot of farm families produce meat birds, along with turkeys and beef cattle.
Back roads of West Virginia, where a lot of farm families produce meat birds, along with turkeys and beef cattle.
Rural farming area south of Moorefield, WV known for it's meat chicken production, surrounded by the high hills of Applachia. Brake is named for the family of early landowner Johann Jacob Brake ("Brechtel" in German) who emigrated from southern Germany in the early 18th century. The town once included a sawmill, gristmill, distillery, blacksmith shop, and post office. The original log house used as a post office in the early- to mid-19th century still stands. The Brake Cemetery harbors the remains of Brakes, Simons, Sees, and probably others whose stones have been lost. Brake Falls on Dumpling Run once provided power for the sawmill and gristmill. The Brake family is still around to this day. The family currently resides in Ohio.
Good farmland is relatively uncommon in Northern West Virginia. But there is an exception around the valley in Fort Seybert.
Right now there is a 15 mile gap between Wardensville WV and Strasburg VA where Interstate 66 and Interstate 81 run. Completion of this gap - long delayed by a lack of funds for Virginia will bring many more cars to Thomas WV and the high country and may forever change the region. I am kind of glad that I've been there a few times before the region will be forever changed by the tourist.