Dolly Sods (10,215 acres) is located in the heart of the highlands of West Virginia and is part of the Cheat-Potomac Ranger District of the Monongahela National Forest. (just to the south of Peatersburg, on the edge of town, the sign reads "Gateway to the Highlands").

Thomas Lewis first explored Dolly Sods in 1746 to find the limits of Lord Fairfax’s land grant for the British Crown. For much of the early 1800’s the area's virgin forest had been avoided and untouched by European settlers - labeled as impenetrable. Toward the end of the century, railroads reached to Davis, WV, and by the early 1900's saw mills cropped up, resulting in logging camps. By 1920, the Dahle family settled on a few acres in the area known as Rohrbaugh planes. They burned the logged mountain top to produce grassy pastures for farming, and animal grazing. Unfortunately, the amount of dead brush and dry peat loam soil, contributed to repeated burning. This killed the grass and left ferns, mosses and lichens to grow, making living on top the mountain very difficult. The Dahle family eventually moved on, leaving their name behind, which was later Americanized into “Dolly Sods”.

During the 1930’s Civilian Conservation Corps reforested some of the areas with pine, and blueberries to prevent erosion and flooding. In 1943, the area was used by the military as an artillery range and maneuver area before troops were sent to Europe to fight in World War II. In 1975 it was added to the National Wilderness Preservation System with the Eastern Wilderness Act. It is now managed under the Wilderness Act of 1964, and is protected so that it will eventually revert to a natural state. Trails are unmarked other than rock piles and wooden signs at some intersections. Be cautious of left over ordinance.

Dolly Sods Gallery Photos

Dolly Sods Trail Map