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#7 New Martinsville, West Virginia
By admin | October 16, 2009
I seem to be on a little bit of a West Virgina kick here.
I was in the mood for a drive and was in Morgantown, West Virginia, so I took Route 7 out of Morgantown to the west. The day was clear and sunny and it is a beautifil winding drive, punctuated by small working natural gas wells. You can figure about an hour’s drive if you go slow enough to enjoy the scenery.
New Martinsville is an Ohio river town. The streets had a sleepy, time-left-behind feeling to them. A friend had recommended doing the buffett at the Quinet restaurant directly across the street from the courthouse.
After I had parked, it was clear from the fairly brisk foot traffic entering and leaving the courhouse that there was something happening inside of the courthouse.
It turns out that the buzz was emanating from the deed room. A quick count showed about fifteen deed extractors poring over large folio type books and scribbling furiously on yellow legal pads.
I tried to engage a few of them in conversation to find out exactly what they were looking for and who hired them, but although they were polite, it was clear that they were not here to chitchat.
The best I could manage was a minute or so with a grandmotherly type who said that there were many new gas field finds and there was a mad scramble on by “big money” to get control of the fields.
After I finished my visit to the deed room, I walked across the street to the Quinet restaurant. It has an all-you-can eat buffet for $10 that was surprisingly good and had a large selection of entrees.
Restrooms in the Courthouse: B
Restrooms in Quinet restaurant: B
Topics: West Virginia Towns | No Comments »