Hampshire County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,093. Its county seat is Romney, West Virginia's oldest town (1762). The county was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1754, from parts of Frederick and Augusta Counties (Virginia) and is the state's oldest county. The county lies in both West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands regions.
The Cacapon River, located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle region, is an 81.0-mile-long (130.4 km) shallow river known for its fishing, boating, wildlife, hunting, and wilderness scenery. As part of the Potomac River watershed, it is an American Heritage River.
Bear Rocks are a widely recognized symbol of West Virginia wilderness and among the most frequently photographed places in the state. They are a well-known landmark on the eastern edge of the plateau that includes the Dolly Sods Wilderness. They sit in a high-elevation heathland punctuated with wind-carved sandstone outcrops and is home to more than a dozen rare plant and animal species. Situated on the crest of the Allegheny Front, Bear Rocks afford vistas over the South Branch Potomac River. Visibility can extend eastward to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
Hanging Rock is an unincorporated community in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Hanging Rock is named for the "Hanging Rock" outcrop that hangs over the Northwestern Turnpike. It should not be confused with the plural "Hanging Rocks" over the South Branch Potomac River north of Romney at Wapocomo. Originally, the community of Hanging Rock sprang up in the Henderson Hollow gap of North River Mountain. While only a few buildings of the old hamlet remain, today's Hanging Rock is situated at the intersection of North River Road and Delray Road where the North River flows under U.S. Route 50 towards the Cacapon.
The Little Cacapon River is a 25.1-mile-long (40.4 km) free-flowing tributary of the Potomac River in the center of Hampshire County, West Virginia. Via the Potomac River, its waters are part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, leading to the Atlantic Ocean. The Little Cacapon enters the Potomac at an elevation of 499 feet (152 m) near the community of Little Cacapon. For the majority of its course the Little Cacapon is a shallow non-navigable stream. It has been historically referred to as both Little Cacapehon and Little Capecaphon. The name is pronounced kə-KAY-pən or KAY-pən.
West Virginia Route 259 is a state highway in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The state highway runs 45.6 miles (73.4 km) from the Virginia state line near Mathias north to the Virginia state line at High View. At both termini, the road continues as Virginia State Route 259. WV 259 passes through Hardy and Hampshire counties and runs concurrently with WV 55 on Corridor H between Baker and Wardensville.
Cacapon Mountain runs northwest through Morgan and Hampshire counties in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, rising to its greatest elevation of 2,618 feet (798 m) above sea-level at High Point. Cacapon Mountain is a folded mountain ridge, belonging to the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Province. Cacapon Mountain spans 16 miles (26 km) NNE to the Potomac River near Great Cacapon.
Spring Gap Mountain runs southwest northeast through Morgan and Hampshire counties in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, rising to its greatest elevation of 2,237 ft (682 m) north of "Spring Gap", from which the mountain takes its name. The gap is the source for Dug Hill Run, a tributary stream of the Little Cacapon River.
Baker Mountain is a mountain ridge in southeastern Hampshire County, West Virginia. The mountain runs southwest northeast between Yellow Spring and the Hardy County line. Baker Mountain is flanked to its east by the Cacapon River with West Virginia Route 259 running parallel between the two. Its forests were once used as a major source of timber for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's rail ties. For this reason, the Winchester and Western Railroad was constructed through the Capon Valley in the 1920s to haul the timber harvested in the region to Winchester, Virginia for railroad tie production. The communities of Capon Lake and Intermont lie at the foot of Baker Mountain on the Cacapon.
Great Cacapon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. As of the 2010 census, its population was 386.
U.S. Route 50 in West Virginia runs from the border with Ohio to Virginia, passing briefly through Garrett County, Maryland, and following the Northwestern Turnpike. Prior to the U.S. Highway System it was West Virginia Route 1 and in the 1930s, the road was not finished in Maryland. Today the section of US 50 from Clarksburg to Parkersburg on the Ohio River is part of Corridor D of the Appalachian Development Highway System.
Little Cacapon Mountain is a mountain ridge of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. The mountain takes its name from the Little Cacapon River, a Potomac River tributary that lies on its western flanks. Little Cacapon Mountain reaches its highest point of 1,575 feet (480 m) in the vicinity of Barnes Mill. It spans from the Frenchburg area, where it is joined by Chestnut Oak Ridge, to the Slanesville Pike where Crooked Run forms a gap between Little Cacapon Mountain and Queens Ridge near Higginsville.
Ice Mountain is a mountain ridge and algific talus slope that is part of a 149-acre (60 ha) preserve near the community of North River Mills in Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 2012.
North Fork Mountain is a quartzite-capped mountain ridge in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of the Allegheny Mountains, also known as the High Alleghenies or Potomac Highlands, of eastern West Virginia. Kile Knob, at 4,588 feet, is the mountain's highest point, and Panther Knob and Pike Knob are nearly as high.
Schaffenaker Mountain is a forested mountain ridge of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The ridge runs southwest northeast between Edwards Run and Dillons Run. Schaffenaker Mountain takes its name from the Schaffenaker family that settled in the immediate area. The Northwestern Turnpike climbs Schaffenaker Mountain to the west of the town of Capon Bridge offering a bird's eye view of the community and of the Cacapon River. Until recently, the mountain had remained mostly undeveloped but its views and proximity to Capon Bridge have made it a prime location for real estate development by companies such as the North American Land Corporation.
The North River is a tributary of the Cacapon River, belonging to the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds. The river is located in Hampshire and Hardy counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. The mouth of the North River into the Cacapon is located at Forks of Cacapon. From its headwaters to its mouth, the North River spans 52.4 miles (84.3 km) in length.
The Lost River is a 31.1-mile-long (50.1 km) river in the Appalachian Mountains of Hardy County in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle region. The Lost River is geologically the same river as the Cacapon River: It flows into an underground channel northeast of McCauley along West Virginia Route 259 at "the Sinks" and reappears near Wardensville as the Cacapon. The source of the Lost River lies south of Mathias near the West Virginia/Virginia border. Along with the Cacapon and North rivers, the Lost River serves as one of the three main segments of the Cacapon River and its watershed.
The Ridgeley sandstone is a sandstone or quartzite of Devonian age found in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, United States. The Ridgeley is fine-grained, siliceous, calcareous in its lower strata, sometimes fossiliferous, and sometimes locally pebbly or conglomeritic. Varying in thickness from 12 to 500 feet, this rock slowly erodes into white quartz sand that often washes or blows away, but sometimes accumulates at large outcrops. When freshly broken, the rock is white, but outcrop surfaces are often stained yellowish by iron oxides.
James Caudy was an American frontiersman, settler, and landowner in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the Colony of Virginia—present-day West Virginia. Caudy was born in the Netherlands, immigrated to the Thirteen Colonies in the 1730s, and settled within the Cacapon River valley near present-day Capon Bridge in Hampshire County. As early as 1741, Caudy was associated with the arrangement and development of transportation routes throughout present-day Hampshire County. Caudy twice hosted George Washington; first during his surveying expedition in 1748 and again upon Washington's 1750 return to the Cacapon River valley.
