Beech Fork Lake is a 720 acre (2.9 km²)

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

located near Lavalette in Wayne County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Beech Fork Lake is also partly located in neighboring Cabell County. Millers Fork and Stowers Branch join Beech Fork with their own river valleys contributing to the majority of the lakesurface of Beech Fork Lake. These streams are

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

Twelvepole Creek Twelvepole Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 26, 2011 river located in Wayne County, West Virginia. It is part of the Mississippi River watershed, by way of ...

. Beech Fork Lake as a flood control impoundment was authorized by the

Flood Control Act In the United States, there are multiple laws known as the Flood Control Act (FCA). Typically, they are enacted to control irrigation because of floods or other natural disasters and are administered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Th ...

of October 23, 1962 and was constructed by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

in the mid-1970s. The lake was completed and dedicated in May 1978.

History of Beech Fork

Known in agrarian times as "Bean Capital Of The World" because of its abundant harvests, remote Beech Fork and its fertile farms had by the mid-20th century devolved into a " Tobacco Road" cut off from the opportunities of modern development. Some tombstones in the park's Bowen Cemetery date to the 18th century; and family names adorning Civil War graves can be seen on roadside mailboxes even today. Government appropriation of private land for the lake caused rancor among locals with historic land holdings. The Beech Fork strain of

Adkins Adkins is a surname of English origin. Notable people with the surname include: *Adele Adkins (born 1988), British singer * Amanda Adkins (born 1974/1975), American politician and businesswoman * Amanda Adkins (born 1976), American swimmer * Bennie ...

family (appropriately known as "Beech Fork Adkinses") was largely driven out to the Huntington metropolitan area. So numerous were these displaced persons that townsfolk joked about an "Adkins factory" at Beech Fork which mass-produced persons of the surname. It has also been said that in the last days, Willie Adkins "the Jews will go back to Palestine and the Adkinses will go back to Beech Fork."

Recreation

Boating, fishing, hiking, camping, and picnicking opportunities are available on site. Biking or walking along the roadways around the park, however inviting, is not generally recommended due to automobile traffic along the narrow rural routes.

Birding

The park is an excellent site for birdwatching. Thousands of square miles of Appalachian hardwood trees surround the Beech Fork Lake area, providing a habitat for

wood warbler The wood warbler (''Phylloscopus sibilatrix'') is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe, and just into the extreme west of Asian Russia in the southern Ural Mountains. This warbler is stro ...

vireo The vireos make up a family, Vireonidae, of small to medium-sized passerine birds found in the New World (Canada to Argentina, including Bermuda and the West Indies) and Southeast Asia. "Vireo" is a Latin word referring to a green migrato ...

thrushes The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flyca ...

, chats,

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

ovenbird The ovenbird (''Seiurus aurocapilla'') is a small songbird of the New World warbler family (Parulidae). This migratory bird breeds in eastern North America and winters in Central America, many Caribbean islands, Florida and northern Venezuela. ...

s, and many other forest dwelling birds. Due to a lack of extensive wetlands attractive to waterfowl, such species are comparatively less common.

References

External links

Beech Fork State ParkU.S. Army Corps of Engineers Beech Fork Website
{{authority control Bodies of water of Cabell County, West Virginia Reservoirs in West Virginia Bodies of water of Wayne County, West Virginia Dams in West Virginia Dams completed in 1976 United States Army Corps of Engineers dams Tourist attractions in Wayne County, West Virginia IUCN Category V

History of Beech Fork

Recreation

Birding

See also

References

External links