Spruce

Overview

The highest and coldest town east of the Mississippi

Spruce sits at about 3,860 feet on Shavers Fork of the Cheat River, high in the mountains of northern Pocahontas County. A small lumber camp took the name first, with a post office from August 1902. In 1904 the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company built a new town about a mile and a half downriver, gave it the name Spruce, and left the first camp to be called Old Spruce. The company's main town was Cass, and Spruce was where its spruce logs were cut to length and stripped of bark before going to the paper mills at Covington, Virginia, and Luke, Maryland.

It was a true company town. The railroad historians' account lists a two-storey hotel with electric light, hot water and steam heat, ten houses on Main Street, a company store and office, a two-room school and an engine shop, and says the town never had a road, only a wide boardwalk. In December 1905 the mill employed 480 men; WBOY puts the town at about 300 people at its peak. Railroad histories call it the highest and coldest town east of the Mississippi.

The mill closed in 1925 and the post office with it. The Western Maryland Railway kept Spruce alive as a base for helper engines on the climb to the Big Cut, but when it moved that work to Slaty Fork the families left, and by 1951 they were gone. The last houses came down in the early 1960s. What remains is concrete in the grass, reached today on the steam trains of the Cass Scenic Railroad.

Timeline

Pulpwood, helper engines, then nothing

1. Aug 25, 1902A post office opens at the first Spruce, a lumber hamlet on Shavers Fork of the Cheat River. A 1903 report finds a store, the post office and several houses.
2. 1904The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company gives the name Spruce to a new mill town on Shavers Fork, about a mile and a half from the first camp, which becomes Old Spruce. Clearing starts in September and the mill machinery is in by the end of December.
3. 1905By February the town is nearly complete. In December the rossing mill, which stripped bark from spruce pulpwood, employs 480 men, most of them Austrians.
4. 1910A visitor describes the hotel, with steam heat and hot and cold running water, and almost twelve carloads of pulpwood leaving each day.
5. 1925The mill closes and its machinery goes to the company's paper mill at Luke, Maryland. The post office closes on August 31. The railroad historians' account gives 1925 to 1926 for the closing.
6. 1927–1929The Western Maryland Railway takes over the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk line. Spruce becomes the base for helper engines pushing coal trains over the grade.
7. 1931–1941A sand tower and a 75-ton coaling station go up in 1931 and a new engine house in 1941.
8. 1949–1951Work on a replacement engine terminal at Slaty Fork begins in October 1949. By 1951 the twenty-odd families living at Spruce have moved away.
9. 1953–1956Diesels reach the branch in 1953. The water tank is retired in December 1954 and the wye and last sidings are taken up in November 1956.
10. Early 1960sThe last few houses, kept for track gangs, are gone. WBOY's 2023 account says the railroad burned every remaining structure.
11. 1990Earth moved for the interchange between the Cass railroad and CSX builds up the hill inside the horseshoe curve, burying much of the old Main Street.
12. 2026Mountain Rail WV schedules four steam excursions from Cass to Spruce, on Saturdays May 23, July 11, August 8 and September 5.

What's left

Concrete in a clearing

Nothing stands but concrete. Richard Sparks's history for the Mountain State Railroad and Logging Historical Association, last updated in 2011, lists railroad grades, the foundations of the Western Maryland shop and water tower, old sand and coal piles, the abutments of the wye bridges and an erosion-control dam. On the mill site he lists building foundations, machine bases, steel conveyor uprights, a mound of mill waste, the mill pond dam and some of the original track, with the brick tops of the boiler fireboxes. The only standing ruins, he writes, citing a 1994 photo, are the concrete walls of the powerhouse. Much of Main Street lies under the fill from the 1990 interchange work.

WBOY's reporter, visiting in 2023, found the shop's concrete floor and foundation just off the main line, a plaque showing the shop as it was, and picnic tables set out by the Cass railroad for its passengers.

The USGS sheets show the town's short life. The 1901 Monterey sheet, before the mill, has Shavers Fork and Cheat Mountain and no settlement. The 1922 and 1924 Cass sheets mark Spruce with its buildings, a spot height of 3,853 feet and lumber railroads running west over the 4,012-foot summit and south along the river; the 1924 sheet also shows the mill pond to the northwest. By 1956 the small-scale sheet shows only the name on the railroad.

• Mill foundations and machine bases
• Powerhouse walls (concrete)
• Railroad shop floor and foundation, with a plaque
• Water tower foundation
• Wye bridge abutments
• Mill pond dam
• Railroad grades and some original mill track
• Picnic tables for train passengers

Visiting

Getting there by train

Spruce was built without a road, and we found no public road to it now. In 2026 Mountain Rail WV, the operator of the Cass trains, ran a "Cass to Spruce Trip" on four Saturdays: May 23, July 11, August 8 and September 5. The train left the Cass depot, 12363 Cass Road, at 11 a.m. and took about four and a half hours, with a cold-cut lunch. Fares were $85 for adults 12 to 64, $83 for seniors, $81 for military and veterans with ID and $65 for children 4 to 11; children 3 and under rode free with a ticket. Those were the prices posted in July. The page said the trips were planned behind Western Maryland Shay No. 6.

The cars are open at the sides with roofs and wooden benches, and the train runs rain or shine. Only car 13 takes a wheelchair, and it has to be reserved. There is one restroom on board, in car 3, and another at the Whittaker Station stop. No pets other than service animals.

All four 2026 dates have passed, and the trip page returned an error when we checked on October 20, 2026. Watch the operator's site for next year. WBOY reported in 2023 that a local stable led horseback rides to Spruce; we haven't confirmed that they still run.

Historic maps

Spruce on USGS maps, 1901–1956

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19011:125,00019221:48,00019241:62,50019561:250,000

Map & directions

Getting there

We found no public road to Spruce, so both routes end at the Cass depot, where the 2026 Spruce trains boarded. Marlinton is about 48 minutes from Cass. From Charleston it's about 3 hours 31 minutes by I-79, WV 15 and US 219. The routing engine can reach the townsite itself only on roads through the Snowshoe resort area and an unnamed track, which we haven't confirmed are open to the public, so we don't show that drive.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Spruce in photos

Cass Scenic Railroad Shay No. 5 with a flatcar of culvert pipe and a caboose, on the way to a brook trout project on Oats Run, October 1, 2012The flatcar of culvert pipe behind Shay No. 5, October 1, 2012

Visitor reports

Been to Spruce?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Spruce

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our West Virginia index.

• Gertrude17.3 mi NE · Pocahontas
• Sunset17.7 mi S · Pocahontas
• Mill Run28.2 mi SW · Pocahontas
• Palmer36.9 mi W · Braxton
• Bulltown40.2 mi NW · Braxton
• Stringtown45.0 mi NE · Tucker
• Smoke Hole45.6 mi NE · Pendleton
• Alum Springs46.9 mi SW · Greenbrier

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Spruce, West Virginia", retrieved October 2026: the 1902 settlement on Shavers Fork, the 1904 pulp mill and Old Spruce, the Greenbrier and Elk railroad, the 1925 closing and the move to Luke, coordinates, elevation and GNIS ID.
2. Richard Sparks, "The Ghost Town of Spruce", Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association, last updated November 1, 2011: the 3,853-foot elevation and the highest-and-coldest billing, the hotel, Main Street and boardwalk, the 1925–1926 closing, the Western Maryland years (1928–1929 takeover, 1931 coaling station, 1941 engine house, 1949 Slaty Fork terminal, 1951 departures, 1953 diesels, 1954 and 1956 removals), the early-1960s end, the 1990 fill, and what remains.
3. William Price McNeel, "Chapter XI: West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company", Logging the Greenbrier Valley, read October 2026: the post office dates (August 25, 1902 to August 31, 1925), the 1903 description, the 1904 naming, construction in 1904 and 1905, the 480 workers of December 1905, the 1910 account, and the Western Maryland purchase of 1927.
4. Mountain Rail WV, "Cass to Spruce Trip", archived copy of July 5, 2026: the 2026 dates, departure time, duration, lunch, fares, boarding address, Shay No. 6, car layout, accessibility, restrooms and pet rule. The live page returned an error on October 20, 2026, and the operator's home page, read the same day, listed no Spruce trip.
5. Joey Rather, "How to get to Spruce, West Virginia's ruined ghost town", WBOY, November 26, 2023: the population of about 300, the 20-acre mill, the shop and the burning of the last structures, the concrete floor, plaque and picnic tables, the reporter's walk in, and the horseback rides.
6. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service file descriptions supply the October 1, 2012 date and the Oats Run culvert project. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Cass Scenic Railroad Shay No. 5 with a flatcar of culvert pipe and a caboose, on the way to a brook trout project on Oats Run, October 1, 2012: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The flatcar of culvert pipe behind Shay No. 5, October 1, 2012: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Spruce on the 1924 USGS Cass sheet, with its mill pond, lumber railroads and Shavers Fork: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Monterey 1901, 1:125,000; Cass 1922, 1:48,000; Cass 1924, 1:62,500; Charlottesville 1956, 1:250,000.