Spruce is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in Pocahontas County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, United States. Spruce is southwest of Durbin.

History

Spruce was settled in 1902 along Shavers Fork of Cheat River. The principal industry in the area was

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckscoal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

. In 1904 the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company (later known as Westvaco) built a

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ...

nearby. The new community adjacent to the mill was also named Spruce, and the original settlement was renamed "Old Spruce." The Greenbrier and Elk Railroad served the town.Sparks, Richard
"The Ghost Town of Spruce."
Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association. 2008-11-28. The pulp mill in Spruce closed in 1925, and the equipment was moved to the company's

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

Luke, Maryland Luke is a town in Allegany County, Maryland, Allegany County, Maryland, United States, located along the Potomac River just upstream of Westernport, Maryland, Westernport. Known originally as West Piedmont, the town is part of the Cumberland, MD-W ...

. Subsequently, the town declined and it eventually was abandoned. While little remains of the former settlement today, the preservation of a former logging railroad line in the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park has enabled visits to the site.

References

Unincorporated communities in Pocahontas County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Populated places established in 1902 1902 establishments in West Virginia Ghost towns in West Virginia {{PocahontasCountyWV-geo-stub