Peace in the valley

Canaan Valley at Dawn

In the lyrics to that wonderful gospel song most famously sung by Elvis, it says: "Well, I'm tired and so weary, but I must go along, till the Lord will come and call, call me away. Well the morning's so bright, and the Lamb is the light, and the night, night is as black as the sea, oh yes." Then comes the refrain, "There will be peace in the valley for me, some day. There will be peace in the valley for me, oh Lord I pray. There'll be no sadness, no sorrow, my Lord, no trouble I see. There will be peace in the valley for me."

That song -- and the fact that the Canaan Valley was named after the Biblical "Land of Canaan," though pronounced differently -- just might explain why this region of West Virginia has such a profound effect on me. I remember first going to Blackwater Falls a decade ago and wanting to return as soon as possible, which I did, going soon after with some of my Athens girlfriends. I saw photographs and artwork of the Dolly Sods, drove down into the valley along the Blackwater River gorge and marvelled at the incredible beauty of the place. I never forgot about it.

Blackwater River in Autumn

Then, in October, I returned and came home rejuvenated enough to start writing on Ajax Rock again, feeling that some part of me had been restored by hiking and visiting the valley and the Dolly Sods. But it didn't end there. The valley has beckoned me back two more times since then, and now I am hooked. I'm going back with Zach next week. It has given an all-new meaning to the term "Valley Girl," which described a materialistic and sort of empty-headed girl from California. This valley is almost by definition non-materialistic. It's where people get high on nature, where most of the land is either a national forest or a national wildlife refuge -- where people are drawn together to hike, fish, ski, tube, snowshoe, golf, climb, ride horses, whitewater, walk -- or simply to contemplate the beauty of their surroundings, read, paint, take photographs, weave, sculpt, or otherwise create things that mirror what surrounds them.

As far as I can tell, life is fairly simple there, as it often is where busy highways and consumerism and electronic gadgets are practically non-existent. The information superhighway has arrived in the Canaan Valley, but it's easy to forget you have a cell phone and even easier to snap that laptop computer closed in favor of going outdoors to see what surprise nature has for you -- wildlife, a spectacular sunset or sunrise, an early snowfall, a view that can't possibly be captured even with the most expensive Pentax or Nikon camera -- though people try.

View of the valley in summer

I did my Wiki research and found this: Canaan Valley is an oval, bowl-like upland valley in northeastern Tucker County, West Virginia, USA. Within it are extensive wetlands and the headwaters of the Blackwater River that spills out of the valley at Blackwater Falls. It is a well-known and partially undeveloped scenic attraction... In the Canaan Valley region, the Blackwater River began carving into the underlying sedimentary rock layers of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age (345-270 millions years ago) about one million years ago.

Canaan Valley was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974. The National Park Service citation indicates that the Valley is "a splendid 'museum' of Pleistocene habitats ... contain[ing] ... an aggregation of these habitats seldom found in the eastern United States. It is unique as a northern boreal relict community at this latitude by virtue of its size, elevation and diversity." Since 1994, almost 70% of the Valley has become the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's 500th National Wildlife Refuge.

A shrub in the valley's habitat

You can see why this special place calls me, can't you? In fact, I'm now thinking that when this house finally sells, I will be moving there where there is so much beauty that it will fill me up, inspire my writing, and give me the peace I'm searching for.

Returning to the lyrics of that lovely old gospel song, I offer this as a kind of prayer that this is where I am meant to be -- where I belong.

"Well, the bear will be gentle, and the wolf will be tame, and the lion shall lay down by the lamb. And the beasts from the wild shall be led by a child, and I'll be changed from this creature that I am."

Amen.