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Driving east of Elkins along what is today a quiet stretch of “Old Route 33,” motorists pass between columns of the stone portal known as the “Gateway to the Monongahela National Forest.” Built without fanfare and handcrafted by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934, this unique, one-of-a-kind, stone structure quickly became a prominent roadside landmark and recognizable Monongahela National Forest icon.

National forest gateways or portal signs were designed to be both boundary marker and roadside architecture, advertising to the motoring public that they were entering or leaving federally managed forest lands. Monongahela National Forest planned to build more, similarly-styled, stone gateways along highways across the Forest. However, none, other than the one east of Elkins, were ever built. In 1935 standardized plans for portal design, adopted by the agency’s Eastern Regional Office, changed the Forest’s plans.