BECKLEY, W.Va. — Tourists can now take a ride down Paint Creek from Tamarack in Raleigh County, through parts of Fayette County and down to Pratt in Kanawha County.
The Paint Creek Scenic Trails Association launched the 44 mile tour Tuesday afternoon in Beckley.
The tour is offered through a mobile app that visitors can download onto their smartphone or tablet. Catherine Moore, project director of the Paint Creek Driving Tour, said the app works with GPS coordinates.
“As you go, you hit a certain spot and that will trigger the audio to start to play, so you don’t even need to use your hands at all to operate it. You just press start at the beginning of the tour and go from there,” she said.
The audio is made up narration from Paint Creek residents, Moore said.
“As they drive the route, audio stories automatically start to play, so you hear about the history, culture and environment of Paint Creek from the voices of the residents who live there,” she said.
Moore said the stories are about coal mining, Native American life, pioneer life, farming and railroad history in that area, to name a few.
Heritage tours, like this, are becoming more popular in the tourism industry, she said.
“Part of this project is about preserving history, but another part is about economic development,” Moore said. “We really want this tour to be a tool for folks to promote this area to visitors.”
To download the app, visit www.paintcreekwv.org.