The Story of Turkey Creek Road

The land beneath 6170 Turkey Creek Road holds a geological story that stretches back hundreds of millions of years — and one that involves a river older than the Appalachian Mountains themselves.

This property sits within the Appalachian Plateau Province, a vast, westward-tilting tableland of nearly horizontal sedimentary rock layers deposited during the Paleozoic Era (540–250 million years ago). Specifically, the bedrock belongs to the Kanawha Formation of the Pennsylvanian-age Pottsville Group — a thick sequence of 1,150 to 1,200 feet of sandstone (roughly 50%), shale, siltstone, and coal beds, laid down when this region was a swampy coastal plain near the equator.

The strong Pottsville sandstone creates the razorback ridges that define the surrounding terrain, while softer shales form the valleys where creeks like Turkey Creek have carved their channels over millennia. The region’s mineral wealth extends beyond coal — the Elk-Poca gas field, spanning Jackson, Kanawha, and Putnam counties, has produced over one trillion cubic feet of natural gas from more than 1,000 wells since 1933.

Perhaps the most remarkable geological feature of this area is invisible — the Teays River, believed to be the second-oldest river on Earth. Before the Pleistocene Ice Ages (more than 2.5 million years ago), the Teays was a massive waterway that originated in present-day North Carolina, carved what is now the New River Gorge as the Appalachian chain rose around it, and flowed northward through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

The modern city of Hurricane sits directly in the ancient Teays Valley, which is approximately one mile wide at this point. Interstate 64 traces the Teays’ historic path from Charleston to Huntington.

As the glacier retreated, Lake Tight filled with sediments — 180 feet of gravel and clay accumulated in the Scott Depot area alone. The ghost of the Teays still lingers: when Hurricane’s post office was constructed in 1995, builders hit a deposit of groundwater trapped in the ancient river’s gravels.

Approximately 800,000 years ago, the Ohio River system formed from the redirected glacial meltwater, and the Teays Valley between present-day Nitro and Huntington was abandoned. Turkey Creek and Hurricane Creek now drain portions of what was once this mighty river’s domain.

Turkey Creek is a stream in the south-central portion of Putnam County, flowing through a narrow valley carved into the Appalachian Plateau’s sandstone and shale. The terrain is characterized by steep, forested hillsides rising from the creek bottom, with elevations ranging from roughly 600 to 1,200 feet — classic dissected plateau topography.

The original ecosystem was Appalachian mixed mesophytic forest — one of the most biodiverse temperate forest types on Earth, with canopies containing up to 50 hardwood species: American beech, yellow poplar, basswood, sugar maple, American chestnut (before the blight), sweet buckeye, and dozens more. These forests have persisted for over 100 million years in the unglaciated Central Appalachian coves — theorized to be the ancestral source of most temperate-zone forest species in eastern North America.

The ink on the Treaty of Camp Charlotte was barely dry when settlers began pushing into the Kanawha Valley. James Conner, arriving from eastern Virginia in 1777, conducted extensive exploration of the Hurricane area and obtained substantial land grants from Virginia’s governor, potentially acquiring 4,000–5,000 acres in the region.

Around 1815, a settlement formed near present-day eastern Hurricane called Hurricane Creek Bridge, serving as a stop on the James River & Kanawha Turnpike — the main overland route connecting the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River, originally proposed by George Washington and completed in 1832. This turnpike, following modern US Route 60, was the commercial lifeline of the region.

The Turkey Creek community developed as part of the broader agricultural settlement of southern Putnam County. On July 2, 1870, A.H. Thornton purchased 50 acres on Turkey Creek from Richard Byrnside — one of many small-acreage transactions that characterized the area’s pattern of family farming. Thomas Jefferson Thornton operated a store on Turkey Creek, serving as a commercial hub for the scattered farming families along the hollow.

Putnam County was established on March 11, 1848, carved from portions of Kanawha, Mason, and Cabell counties. Named for General Israel Putnam, who commanded Continental forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill, the 1850 census recorded 5,336 residents — including 632 enslaved people, reflecting the county’s position in the border region.

Unlike western territories surveyed under the Township-Range-Section system, West Virginia is a “state land state” — property was described using metes and bounds (natural landmarks, compass bearings, and measured distances). Property histories along Turkey Creek must be traced through the Putnam County Courthouse and the West Virginia State Archives.

The Civil War divided Putnam County — roughly 400 soldiers served on each side. The most notable engagement was the Battle of Scary Creek on July 17, 1861 — the first Confederate victory in the Kanawha Valley. About 1,300 Union troops under Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox clashed with 900 Confederates under Brigadier General Henry A. Wise. Confederate Captain Albert Jenkins (later a general) led his side to victory after Colonel George S. Patton — grandfather of the WWII general — was wounded.

Hurricane was formally incorporated in 1888. The 20th century brought transformative change:

• 1957The Winfield Bridge finally connected the northern and southern halves of Putnam County, which the Kanawha River had divided for over a century.
• 1960sInterstate 64 was constructed through the Teays Valley, placing Hurricane directly on the corridor between Charleston and Huntington.
• 1970sHurricane achieved city status when its population surpassed 3,000 residents.
• 1990sToyota established a major manufacturing facility in the county, becoming one of the largest employers.

The numbers tell the story of I-64’s impact:

Hurricane’s 2020 population of 6,977 represents more than double the 1970 figure. Between 2010 and 2020, Hurricane was the second-fastest-growing community in West Virginia. Putnam County has been one of the fastest-growing counties in the state — remarkable in a state where most counties have been losing population for decades.

The June 2016 “thousand-year” rainfall event devastated communities in Kanawha, Nicholas, and Greenbrier counties, killing 23 people. Turkey Creek Road, situated in a narrow valley, is characteristic of the hollows where flash flooding can be a concern during extreme weather.