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Descriptive Essay About Seneca Rocks

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Somewhere Among the Hills Among the Blue-Ridge Mountains in West Virginia, Seneca Rocks remains a place that values preservation of nature, its history, a family-oriented environment, and the safety and well-being of those who visit. I have visited Seneca Rocks at least three times in my 18 years and it is a very common place in my hometown, therefore, my personal experience helps me determine its values. “Seneca Rocks is a bare white sandstone sheet of rocks with sheer cliffs, towering 900 feet above the surrounding valley in the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia’s Panhandle. This giant slab of rocks has been there for 440 million years. The rock sits along U.S Route 33 and is about 34 miles east of Elkins.” (Bob Downing, Akron …show more content…

Whetsell.” (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT)
“West Virginia was chosen for this training school because of the terrain was similar to Italy and its Apennine Mountains which was where the soldiers were headed next. Roughly 180 men and officers went through this school every two weeks to learn alpine combat techniques. The training included easy rock scrambling to extreme tension with pitons. It also included the use of assault ropes and pulleys. Each group made two tactical night climbs on unfamiliar rocks. (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT)
“Those who participated in this school camped along the river north of Seneca Rocks. Each climbing instructor had a total of ten men to train. At the end of the first week the instructor had to drop the weakest climbers and the remaining six got an additional week of advanced climbing.” (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT)
Most people don’t know this history lesson of Seneca Rocks. “Climbers today have still come across rusting soft-iron pitons that were hammered into the Tuscarora quartzite. This isn’t surprising considering more than 75,000 pitons were reportedly installed on Seneca Rocks by the soldier climbers in 1943-1944. One area at Seneca Rocks has been dubbed the Face of Thousand Pitons.” (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) Another key value to Seneca Rocks is having a family-oriented environment. It is a very popular tourist attraction, especially in the summer

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