The Jug
History
Middle Island Creek's most extreme meander forms a peninsula known as "the Jug," located upstream of Middlebourne. The creek rounds a 3.3 mile (5.3 km) bend only to return to within 100 feet (30 m) of itself. Sometime prior to 1800, an early white settler named George Gregg had a raceway (mill race) carved across the narrow point of the peninsula and harnessed the resulting hydropower of the stream's 13-foot (4 m) fall for a gristmill and sawmill at the site. These mills were destroyed by a flood in 1852; four more mills were subsequently built and respectively washed away by flooding in the later 19th century. Flooding had the effect of widening the raceway across the peninsula such that it became the main channel of the stream, inhibiting the flow of water through the longer loop and transforming the peninsula into an island. In 1947 the West Virginia Conservation Commission constructed a low water bridge which substantially dammed the cut-through and restored a steady flow to the bend of the creek. The low water bridge is known to be frequently impassable due to flooding. The land encircled by the creek's loop is operated as a Wildlife Management Area by the state of West Virginia.
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The remains of the 18th-19th century cut across the peninsula of the Jug, as viewed in 2006. The creek is partially prevented from flowing here by the dam effect of the low water bridge visible at left (see photograph below); the creek is slightly visible at right, having emerged from a 3.3 mile (5.3 km) meander. -
A 1947 low water bridge maintains the partial flow of Middle Island Creek (left) around the Jug. The creek emerges from the bend just to the right of the frame of the photograph.
See also
References
- ^ "The Jug Wildlife Management Area". Protected Planet. IUCN. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ WVDNR District 6 Wildlife Management Areas, Accessed March 29, 2008
- ^ Morrison, Scott (March 1997), "Middle Island Creek"; In: Wonderful West Virginia; West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, 61 (1): 14–15.
- ^ Ratliff, Gerald S., "Jug of Middle Island Creek" (2006); In: The West Virginia Encyclopedia; Ken Sullivan, editor, Charleston, WV: West Virginia Humanities Council; ISBN 0-9778498-0-5.
- ^ West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. "West Virginia Wildlife Management Areas". Archived from the original on 2006-12-13. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
