| John
English lives in northern Virginia where he is president of
English & Associates Consulting. John is a lawyer, but we try
to not hold that against him. In fact, it has proven quite
convenient as John does most of the drafting of legislation, contracts,
liability releases, rules, and lots of other writing work for our trails
projects, when we can get him away from writing poetry and short
stories. He serves as our Washington area representative, providing liaison with Congress and government
agencies. John says he's pretty proficient on an ATV (please
disregard that tumble he took down the hill on trail 35 next to the gas
pipeline a few years ago) and sometimes
rides a dirt bike but he really prefers a bicycle. He's also the
webmaster for this site, which proves you can teach an old dog new
tricks.
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John English |
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| They said, "If you build it, they'll come." So we started building. That was back when my beard was brown, and my belly less round. They actually said that, in a good year, 600,000 of you would come. It's been a hard ten-year effort and it's produced a bit of gray hair, but it will all be worth it when you come and enjoy the trails. And I know you will because it's TrailsHeaven. Give us just a bit longer and we'll have another treat for you, the sKYward trails in Eastern Kentucky. The people in Kentucky tell us their trails will be even better than the Hatfield-McCoy. It'll be your job to ultimately make that assessment. John | |||||
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Mike Whitt |
Mike Whitt lives in the Hatfield-McCoy project area. He is the Executive Director of the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority in Williamson. A former state legislator, Mike enjoys an excellent relationship with state and local elected officials. He also serves as our liaison with the landowners, answering their questions and encouraging them to sign licensing agreements. He also served briefly as the interim director of the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, filling in at a critical time and working long hours to get the trails open. Like all southern West Virginians, Mike seems to have been born on an ATV. He rides frequently to the top of a reclaimed surface mine where he operates a demonstration agriculture project growing grapes and other fruit in old coal gravel. The chief Trail Scouts and their wives toasted the opening of the trails with Mike's strip mine wine. Now we're looking forward to toasting the opening of the sKYward trails in Kentucky.
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| Welcome to southern West Virginia where the mountains are beautiful, the people are warm and friendly, and the trails are nothing short of TrailsHeaven. We hope you will enjoy our hospitality and the land that we love so much, and that you'll come back again and again to have fun here. Mike | |||||
| John and Mike want to acknowledge the significant role played in the development of the Hatfield-McCoy trails by many other people, especially our former partner Leff Moore. The list would number in the many hundreds if we tried to acknowledge them all. We have been privileged to be leaders in the project, but no project of this magnitude can be accomplished without the support and cooperation of many people, institutions, and corporations. We have enjoyed tremendous support and we appreciate each and every contributory effort. Thank you. | |||||
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Leff
Moore |
Our former partner Leff Moore wore many hats. He was the director of several associations, including the West Virginia Recreational Vehicle Association. He was a legislative lobbyist and played a very significant role in West Virginia politics. Throughout the development of the Hatfield-McCoy trails, he served as the director of the development coalition. He was the chief spokesman for the Hatfield-McCoy vision; he was also a great teller of West Virginia tall tales (and only occasionally got those two tasks mixed up). He was the chief fund raiser for the project. In 1999 he was named West Virginia "Tourism Person of the Year" for his work on the Hatfield-McCoy. Leff was the finest man we have known and we miss him dearly as friend and colleague. He's up there now in the real TrailsHeaven working on trails for all of us.
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The Original Chief Trail Scouts |
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William Anderson |
Randolph |
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1839 - 1921 |
1825 - 1913 |
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