JUNE 2009 - Twin Falls State Park

This past month, I decided to take a Photography Workshop being held at Twin Falls State Park. I have taken a couple of these before. They're not structured training in the way a formal classroom would be; but the facilitators offer their wisdom and experience, critique some of your photos which I find really helpful, and discuss the pros and cons of different equipment. A friend who also attended noted that going to a photography workshop always made him aware of some new piece of photographic equipment or processing software he might just have to buy. Part of the reason I went, though, was because I had never been to Twin Falls State Park.

Twin Falls State Park is located near Beckley, in the southern part of the state. It's more mountainous than our north central Mountain Lakes region. Leaving the interstate/main highways and driving down the two lanes from Beckley towards the park, the towns get smaller and smaller. Going into the park, the approach to the lodge is through a woodsy, winding road. The lodge itself is a compendium of boxlike structures stacked on a hillside. Lots of steps connect the twenty rooms, the restaurant, the wildlife displays, and the conference areas. There are no elevators in this original lodge, but a new wing is being constructed which will have this convenience.

Scott Durham, the Park Superintendent, noted that they are trying to come up with a name for the new, twenty-seven room wing. He also told an interesting story about the current building's unusual design. A college van pulled up one time and the students came out of the van talking about the building being a "Gropius" design. When Scott asked them to describe "Gropius", that told him about what they called Gropius architectural style. Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus style of architecture was a German architect who immigrated to the United States and founded the Architect's Collaborative of Baltimore. Gropius couldn't draw, which is unusual for an architect, and according to the students, that was the reason his style utilized sets of boxlike structures. Scott said that the Hawks Nest State Park is constructed in the same manner. The new wing will have elevators, but because of the way the original building is designed - interlocking but staggered 'boxes', installing an elevator in the original lodge facility is not practical.

Twin Falls State Park is named after the two waterfalls on the property. A short drive from the lodge takes you to a parking lot entrance to the falls. The trail itself is an oblong loop. From the parking lot, the lower trail goes directly by the falls, but visitors should be aware that it's a little rough and is peppered with small rocks all of the way. From this trail, there's a view of the falls but, for serious head-on photographs, be prepared to scramble down the hill to the water's edge. The smaller waterfall is at the end of the trail. The falls are pretty, but are not on the same scale as others in the state - Blackwater, for example.

One of the most interesting parts of Twin Falls State Park is Pioneer Farm, a working replication of an 1830's era farm with an interesting story. When the state park acquired the property from the Bower family, there was a two-story, green, frame farmhouse which the park had decided to tear down, along with some other structures. When they began tearing down the farmhouse, they uncovered four log walls and a fireplace dating to the original 1830s building. There was already a smokehouse and a barn, so Smokey, the Park Superintendent at the time, decided to preserve and recreate the farm. Failing to get money through official channels, Smokey opted to use park labor and started work himself. Scott, the present-day superintendent and the source of this story, had just been hired as an assistant and was witness to these events.

At the time, the state had a chief park planner, who happened to visit Twin Falls one day and saw the work going on at the farm. The planner decided that he should have been involved; but he had not been consulted. One day after that visit, Scott was at the farm with Smokey, who was hard at work chinking up the crevices between the logs, when a long tubular package arrived in the mail. When Smokey opened it, he found it contained plans for rebuilding the farmhouse - plans drawn up by the state's park planner. Smokey, being a little hard-headed according to our story-teller Scott, was a little put out that someone would come along and tell him how to do what he had already started to do, especially since he had asked the state for help at the beginning of the project and had been denied. So Smokey put the plans back in the tube, put the tube between two of the logs, and chinked over them. The plans are still there.

The only person who knows where they are is Scott and he says, "I ain't tellin'."

Not even the current residents know where the plans are.

Roland and Fredia Nash, Pioneer Farm caretakers, have resided there for the past eight years. Getting there was a long process. Of the more than 100 applicants for the position, 39 were interviewed. Of those interviewed, only two had been full-time farmers. When the Nashes were hired, they sold their property in Glenville. All of the livestock are theirs and taking care of the property is their primary and full-time job. There have been three families residing on the farm over the years.

Twin Falls State Park is open year round. There are 20 rooms in the lodge, which will be expanding to 47 when the new wing opens at the end of the year. There are also camp groups and cabins for rent. Although the original structure has no elevator, the new addition will be handicap accessible. Check out the web site at www.twinfallsresort.com or phone (304) 294-4000.