Chuck Workman is a native to Pocahontas County.

Jeff Price, of Marlinton bagged this 8-point in the Monongahela National Forest off the Scenic Highway.

     Chuck Workman is the owner of Appalachian Sport in Marlinton and a native to Pocahontas County. He's been an avid hunter since his youth.

Gentlemen, start your skilifts! Covered with a blanket of fresh powder courtesy of the snowguns, Skidder slope is ready for action.

Making snow, making snow, making snow!      Snowshoe Mountain is home to the largest snowmaking arsenal in the Southeast Region with over 400 snow guns at the Snowshoe and Silver creek areas. With 100% snowmaking capability, the resort's snowmaking team can cover all 57 slopes on the mountain, which means great conditions on every run that Snowshoe Mountain has to offer      Come on over to Snowshoe Mountian Resort where it's winter right now, and will be for the next five months. For more details call 877-441-4FUN, or visit the web site: www.snowshoemtn.com

 

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Not all the jewels are in the sky

NRAO Visitor Center sparkles as it moves toward completion

Heidi Zemach
Contributing Writer
Mountain Times photos by
Heidi Zemach (top) and Anja Baudler.

Construction work remains, but NRAO will soon see the opening of the Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center

      As if the massive moving and flashing Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope weren't interesting enough, drivers along Rt. 28/92 may have noticed a lot of new construction underway at the Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observatory. A strange space-age-looking building is fast taking form there, and is now just months away from completion.
      The $6.1 million NRAO visitor center will provide a new tourist destination in Pocahontas County and future learning experiences for thousands of school children. It will be an education center to teach students, teachers, and the public more about the field of radio astronomy and what that science has revealed about our universe.
      On any given day, from dawn to dusk, 30 workers from throughout West Virginia are kept busy with the project, said Randy Tincher, the building project superintendent from Multiplex, Inc., of Summersville, the project's construction company. A large percentage of the workers come from Pocahontas, Greenbrier, and other nearby counties. An estimated total of 100 or more workers from a variety of state contractors, and subcontractors have been involved since the building was begun in October 2001.
      Hard-hat workers have been deluged with questions at the gas pump, hotels and elsewhere by local residents curious about the new construction.
      "Oh yes, there's a lot of interest by local people about it, " Tincher said. "All of the structure is up. The building is ‘dried in,' the roof is on, the windows are up, and weather can't get into the building," said NRAO business manager Mike Holstine. The majority of the building's heating, ventilation, air conditioning and electrical systems are installed, and the dry wall is nearing completion, he said. Despite an original deadline of December, Holstine expects the building to be finished by the end of February, due mostly to a few weather-related delays. It should be up and running by spring, he said. The center includes a large exhibit hall and auditorium, several classrooms, a computer lab, a café, and a gift shop. It will feature artifacts and hands-on displays that explain the instruments, techniques, and scientific discoveries of radio astronomy from the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. It also has an outdoor patio for star parties where participants can view stars directly through telescopes and binoculars.
      Perhaps the most unique aspect, from a construction standpoint, is the elaborate copper shielding system to prevent radio frequency (RF) wave interference from seeping into or out of the new center. Computer chips, digital cameras, microwave ovens and other devices generate RF waves that could interfere with the research being done at NRAO, so the computer lab and exhibit hall must be carefully sealed, Holstine said.
      Walk into these rooms and you will see the walls, floors and ceilings entirely covered with a thin layer of the wrinkled shiny reddish copper sheeting material. The "U" shaped entrance leading into the exhibit hall also is lined with copper shielding covered by RF absorption baffles and 12-inch absorption cones to keep the radio waves from escaping. The computer lab entrance also has special RF shielding doors, and RF-tight windows. The shiny copper shielding will remain exposed on the ceiling, upper walls and entrances to be used as part of the educational experience, Holstine said. Visitors also will be taught about the radio interference caused by taking digital photographs, he said.
      "This is not cheap construction, but it's necessary for the protection of the [National Radio] Quiet Zone," Holstine explained.
      In addition to the challenge of sealing in all radio waves, the building's unusual design also is complicated to build, Tincher said.

Center sparkles as it moves toward completion.

      "Most buildings we build are square or rectangle," he explained. "This is all round, or triangles or whatever."
      The round main lobby, built to architecturally reflect the structure of the telescopes, is dominated by a two-story angled glass array of clear and blue-tinged windows and skylights. It overlooks the Green Bank Telescope. Visitors snacking on sandwiches provided at the lobby's take-out cafeteria, or purchasing items at the gift store will be able to watch the telescope as it moves and changes shape, searching the universe. Nearby, a 150-seat auditorium will show films on radio astronomy and on the new telescope.
      Interactive exhibits will familiarize the public with radio waves, and how to distinguish between optical astronomy and radio wave astronomy. One of the most ambitious exhibits will be a functional 8-foot model of the telescope.
      "When you visit the center you will be able to control the model, simulate an observing session, and analyze the data that you collect," said Sue Ann Heatherly, education officer at NRAO-Green Bank. "You get to be the astronomer. At the same time, through a connection to the GBT control center, you will be able to "eavesdrop" on the science being conducted with the real telescope."
      While many local students will probably visit more often, a major goal of the facility is to host every school student in West Virginia at least once before they graduate from high school. A second phase of the project will be to construct a dormitory facility for overnight stays by school groups visiting the center. The facility, which will be built opposite the current NRAO cafeteria and residence hall, will sleep up to 70 students in separate boys and girls dorms. Construction on that part of the project will begin any time, Holstine said.
      The facility is a cooperative effort of NASA's Office of Space Science and the Facilities Management Division, the National Science Foundation, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The appropriation funding for the center was sponsored by Senator. Robert C. Byrd.

      Heidi Zemach recently moved to Pocahontas County from Kodiak, Alaska, where she was a reporter for the Kodiak Daily Mirror. She has also worked in radio, film and theater. .

 

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ADVENTURES IN GOOD EATING

Boyer Station warms the heart and soul,
                and satisfies your appetite, too

by Heidi Zemach
Contributing Writer
Mountain Times photos by Heidi Zemach
      Residents who live in the upper end of Pocahontas County occasionally get tired of country store take-out pizzas. We sometimes have a hankering for something more substantial, eaten out. But options are few, unless we want to drive 40 minutes to the upscale restaurants at Snowshoe Village, to Marlinton, or farther. That makes the Boyer Station Restaurant on Rt. 28/92 just north of Green Bank a good choice. we recently discovered, when my husband and I escaped there for a rare dinner out while the kids were away.

The Boyer Restaurant's interior is based on a railroad theme, with menu items to match.

       As soon as we passed through Boyer Restaurant's heavy wooden doors, the cozy warmth of the place, the faint, sweet smell of home-baked bread, and friendly chatter hit us. A few families and some camouflage-clad hunters occupied the tables and booths. A waitress, taking advantage of a lull, stood near a table chatting with her neighbors who were at the restaurant for a bit of company, or to avoid having to prepare their own dinner. "Everybody knows everybody," explained Susie Murphy, who owns and runs the restaurant with her husband, Frank. "We try to have good food and treat people right," she added.
       Choosing a booth, a waitress immediately welcomed us and offered drinks while we considered the dinner menu. Grilled pork chops, ham with fried apple rings, golden fried jumbo shrimp, fried honey-dipped chicken and breaded chicken breasts faced us on the menu, among other things.
       Most come with salad, bread and a choice of vegetable. My husband chose the ribeye steak, while I chose the locally renowned lasagna, which came with bread soaked in garlic and butter. It also came with the restaurant's other popular claim to fame - a crunchy and zesty house salad with a slightly sweet, faintly tart and creamy dressing. Entrees for the dinner menu were priced considerably less than $10, except for the steaks, which hovered at around $12. The prices, intentionally kept low, keep it affordable for the locals, who make up a good portion of her customers, and also employees, Murphy said. But travelers staying at the inn or campground also enjoy a good hot meal.
       "We've [also] had a lot of people say they've been travelling 2-3 weeks at a time, and they tell us this is the best meal they've had on their journey," she said. Indeed, the food was wholesome and good. The cheesy lasagna was smothered in thick homemade tomato sauce, and the steak arrived well done, yet still juicy, as desired. I especially went gaga over the unusual crunchy and sweet shredded house salad, a family favorite of the original owners.
       More important to the dining experience was the friendly atmosphere and interesting ambience of the restaurant, fashioned after an old-style train station or dinner carriage. The train clock hooted a realistic-sounding train whistle as we took in all the classic train memorabilia decorating the walls.
       They included train signs, schedules, train paintings, lantern helmets, model trains, and more. Even the bathroom wallpaper, (1930s-era newspaper clippings featuring scantily clad women advertising cures for acne and tooth decay), had the feel of an old train station.
       The wooden-slatted booth benches were sturdy and comfortable. George Phillips, the man who dreamed up and created the restaurant in the late ‘70s, had painstakingly patterned them after a bench he saw at the Allegheny Central Railroad in Covington, according to his daughter, Karen Murphy.
       A teacher by profession, but also a skilled woodworker, her father was the kind of person who could look at an object or piece of furniture and then go home and build it, Murphy said. Working evenings after teaching at the Green Bank School, Phillips entirely remodeled the building, which had lain empty and in disrepair for nearly 20 years. It had formerly been the town's main store and post office, and you can still see some of the remains of the post office and the names of the customers preserved in the back of the restaurant.
       Phillips would frequently haunt old railway stations being torn down, searching for supplies and ideas, Murphy said. He built all the original furniture, based on the stations he'd seen, she said. But he fell in love with the original wood-paneled walls, and kept them, painted white. Over the years, many customers also have contributed train items for the store, Murphy said. One night, before the restaurant opened in May, ‘79, her father sat the family down with a big train book and they picked out interesting train names for the breakfast and lunch menus. As a result, customers can still order a "Little Red Caboose" (Polish sausage with chili and melted cheese); a "Cow Catcher" (a Reuben sandwich); a "Flat Car" (Steak Hoagie) and much more. The "Little Toot" is a hot dog with chili, - guess why it's called that! The train-names drive new cooks crazy, but they delight customers, many of whom visit the area to ride the Cass Scenic Railroad, according to Murphy.

Owner, Susie Murphy takes five.

       After George's death, Carolyn Phillips continued to run the restaurant, until she sold it to Frank and Susie Murphy, (Karen's in-laws) in 1994.
       These days, Susie Murphy cooks, waits tables, and does a lot of other things, while Frank Murphy helps out, and also cooks the Sunday specials - roast beef and pork roast. "You done good. We appreciate it," I heard one satisfied customer tell the waiter, as he handed her his money. "Very good, I really enjoyed it," another called into the kitchen.
       I was so stuffed, I had to take home my dessert - a brownie topped with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was one of a half-dozen delicious homemade desserts offered that evening.
       Boyer Station Restaurant is smoke free, throughout.

       Due mostly to local demand, the restaurant will stay open as much as possible through the winter this year.

       It will be closed in December, the time of least use, but will be open again the second week of January, and will run Thursdays through Sundays (Phone 456-4667).
 

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