HARMAN - Perched atop the windswept Allegheny Front at an average elevation of 4,500 feet, The Nature Conservancy's newest West Virginia preserve can be expected to offer an alpine climate.

But three inches of snow on the last day of April was still a bit of a surprise for a group of visitors to the new Mount Porte Crayon Preserve, a 100-acre tract of red spruce-northern hardwood forest and shrub-filled pastures slowly returning to woodland.

"It was 70 degrees up here last week and we were looking for wildflowers," said Rodney Bartgis, the conservancy's state director, as he led a small group into the preserve via the tread of a railroad grade built by loggers nearly 100 years ago and abandoned when the virgin forest was cut.

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Rick Steelhammer

Thomas Minney and Rodney Bartgis of The Nature Conservancy hike a snowy path on the shoulder of Mount Porte Crayon to enter the new preserve.

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The new preserve is wrapped around the southern shoulder of its namesake, 4,770-foot Mount Porte Crayon, and almost entirely surrounded by the Monongahela National Forest. The preserve borders the Mon's proposed Roaring Plains Wilderness Area for more than three-fourths of a mile.

Moshein, who enjoyed hiking and camping in the nearby Dolly Sods Wilderness and Roaring Plains backcountry, bought the two small parcels of private land surrounded by U.S. Forest Service property back in 1966.

"I was familiar with the territory, since I'd been hiking in that area for years, and I was thrilled to find that the property was available. My intention has always been to preserve this land. I've never cut a tree on it."

Moshein built a small, spartan cabin on the neighboring parcel, which he visits about twice monthly from May through October.

"It's nice not to have to pitch a tent after a hike," he said. "The views are breathtaking, and it's a great staging place for hikes into Roaring Plains and Flatrock Plains and for day trips to other places I like to visit, like Cass, the Smokehole and Sinks of Gandy."

Mount Porte Crayon is named in honor of West Virginia native David Hunter Strother, a former Union Army brigadier general, who used the pen name Porte Crayon in his post-war writing and illustrations, most of which appeared in Harpers Monthly.

Between 1872 and 1875, Strother/Porte Crayon wrote and illustrated "The Mountains," a series of 10 articles for Harpers about adventures in the state's Allegheny highlands.

A group of "The Mountains" admirers formed the Porte Crayon Memorial Society in 1940. Upon learning of the presence of an unnamed 4,760-foot promontory in the heart of the writer-illustrator's beloved highland terrain, they successfully lobbied to have it named in his honor.

On July 5, 1940, a dedication ceremony was held at the top of the mountain following a three-hour trek to the site. It included a eulogy, a singing of the national anthem, and the raising of the star-spangled banner atop a spruce flagpole.

Mount Porte Crayon remains one of the state's most inaccessible peaks, since it is far from the nearest trail, let alone public road. Reaching its summit involves a three-mile bushwhacking hike from Flatrock Run Trail or Roaring Plains Trail, then a difficult trek through a dense spruce thicket to reach its summit.

A visit to the preserve, now open to the public, involves a three-mile round-trip hike from the junction of the Forest Service's Roaring Plains and Flatrock Run trails along Mount Porte Crayon Grade - a former railroad swath that now carries an unmarked, un-maintained trail onto the preserve.

The tract is five miles from the nearest Forest Service roadside trailhead. Camping is not allowed on the property.

Although numerous large red spruce shade the higher ground on the preserve, which ranges from 4,320 to 4,620 feet in elevation, the tract has been timbered and burned.

HARMAN - Perched atop the windswept Allegheny Front at an average elevation of 4,500 feet, The Nature Conservancy's newest West Virginia preserve can be expected to offer an alpine climate.

But three inches of snow on the last day of April was still a bit of a surprise for a group of visitors to the new Mount Porte Crayon Preserve, a 100-acre tract of red spruce-northern hardwood forest and shrub-filled pastures slowly returning to woodland.

"It was 70 degrees up here last week and we were looking for wildflowers," said Rodney Bartgis, the conservancy's state director, as he led a small group into the preserve via the tread of a railroad grade built by loggers nearly 100 years ago and abandoned when the virgin forest was cut.

"I've seen patches of snow in the shade in mid-May several times," said Peter Moshein, a Clarksburg native and retired University of Pittsburgh psychology professor, who recently donated the tract to The Nature Conservancy. "It's just wild, terrific country up there."

The new preserve is wrapped around the southern shoulder of its namesake, 4,770-foot Mount Porte Crayon, and almost entirely surrounded by the Monongahela National Forest. The preserve borders the Mon's proposed Roaring Plains Wilderness Area for more than three-fourths of a mile.

Moshein, who enjoyed hiking and camping in the nearby Dolly Sods Wilderness and Roaring Plains backcountry, bought the two small parcels of private land surrounded by U.S. Forest Service property back in 1966.

"I was familiar with the territory, since I'd been hiking in that area for years, and I was thrilled to find that the property was available. My intention has always been to preserve this land. I've never cut a tree on it."

Moshein built a small, spartan cabin on the neighboring parcel, which he visits about twice monthly from May through October.

"It's nice not to have to pitch a tent after a hike," he said. "The views are breathtaking, and it's a great staging place for hikes into Roaring Plains and Flatrock Plains and for day trips to other places I like to visit, like Cass, the Smokehole and Sinks of Gandy."

Mount Porte Crayon is named in honor of West Virginia native David Hunter Strother, a former Union Army brigadier general, who used the pen name Porte Crayon in his post-war writing and illustrations, most of which appeared in Harpers Monthly.

Between 1872 and 1875, Strother/Porte Crayon wrote and illustrated "The Mountains," a series of 10 articles for Harpers about adventures in the state's Allegheny highlands.

A group of "The Mountains" admirers formed the Porte Crayon Memorial Society in 1940. Upon learning of the presence of an unnamed 4,760-foot promontory in the heart of the writer-illustrator's beloved highland terrain, they successfully lobbied to have it named in his honor.

On July 5, 1940, a dedication ceremony was held at the top of the mountain following a three-hour trek to the site. It included a eulogy, a singing of the national anthem, and the raising of the star-spangled banner atop a spruce flagpole.

Mount Porte Crayon remains one of the state's most inaccessible peaks, since it is far from the nearest trail, let alone public road. Reaching its summit involves a three-mile bushwhacking hike from Flatrock Run Trail or Roaring Plains Trail, then a difficult trek through a dense spruce thicket to reach its summit.

A visit to the preserve, now open to the public, involves a three-mile round-trip hike from the junction of the Forest Service's Roaring Plains and Flatrock Run trails along Mount Porte Crayon Grade - a former railroad swath that now carries an unmarked, un-maintained trail onto the preserve.

The tract is five miles from the nearest Forest Service roadside trailhead. Camping is not allowed on the property.

Although numerous large red spruce shade the higher ground on the preserve, which ranges from 4,320 to 4,620 feet in elevation, the tract has been timbered and burned.

"In the early 1860s, a campfire got away from a Confederate army group that camped near here and burned across the spruce forest west of Roaring Plains," Bartgis said.

Timber crews and logging trains swept through the tract during the 1910s and 1920s, and more fires followed their departure.

But with time and an absence of human activity, other than some livestock grazing, the forest came back.

The spruce forest is now dense and shady enough to support one of the most productive populations anywhere of the endangered Cheat Mountain salamander.

The state Division of Natural Resources is monitoring the tract and adjacent national forest land for the presence of the West Virginia northern flying squirrel, which is also on the endangered species list, although federal officials have recommended its de-listing due to rebounding numbers.

Several flying squirrel nest boxes line the railroad grade trail that crosses the tract near the headwaters of Long Run.

"This is where the last wolf in Pendleton County was killed, back in 1896," Bartgis said, as he hiked past the stream.

Along the trail, several grouse could be seen jogging for cover behind ground-hugging spruce boughs, and turkey and rabbit tracks were visible in the fresh accumulation of snow, along with the scat of coyotes and black bear.

The slopes of Mount Porte Crayon serve as a nesting area for tiny saw-whet owls, and provide excellent habitat for snowshoe hares. An endangered plant, the running buffalo clover, has been found on the western slopes of the mountain.

 In addition to northern species like snowshoe hares and saw-whet owls that are living here near the southern limits of their range, a number of plants and animals commonly found in the Southern Appalachians also can be found here, including the southern water shrew, southern mountain cranberry and white monkshead.

The Nature Conservancy considers the Roaring Plains-Dolly Sods area of the Allegheny Front, which includes the Mount Porte Crayon Preserve, one of the most biologically and ecologically diverse regions in West Virginia.

The area sits astride the Eastern Continental Divide, which not only separates stream drainages between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, but divides the area between zones of high and low precipitation. Add in the wide ranges in elevation and geologic types, and "you have a remarkable diversity of habitats," according to Bartgis.

The Nature Conservancy holds an option to buy a conservation easement on a nearby 2,000-acre tract of private land formerly owned by Mead-Westvaco and now owned by Thunderstruck Conservation LLC and the Sustainable Land Fund.

A donation from Chesapeake Energy Corp. will pay for the long-term management of the new preserve.

Moshein said he wanted to donate his tract to The Nature Conservancy to be sure that it remained undisturbed and unspoiled.

"Even though it had been logged over, it's grown up quite a bit since I've had it, and I'd like it to keep growing," he said. "My intention has always been to preserve this terrific place. I feel good about having done it."

To contact staff writer Rick Steelhammer, use e-mail or call 348-5169.