MARLINTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s largest state park now has another designation, West Virginia’s darkest park. However, Superintendent Jody Spencer has no problem with the new designation.
Watoga State Park was recently certified as a Dark Sky Area by the International Dark Sky Association.
“There’s a very strict set of standards to get this recognition. It has to do with the amount of light pollution in your area, visibility of the night sky from where you’re located,” Spencer explained.
Members of the Watoga State Park Foundation worked to modify the park to meet the standards. The work, which involved changing out light fixtures and replacing a lot of light bulbs, took about two years to complete.
Lights are aimed downward, and the bulbs are required to meet a certain maximum light emitting standard. The idea is to keep the sky as dark as possible during the nighttime hours to make it easier to view celestial bodies and occurrences.
It’s the first Dark Sky designation in West Virginia.
“We welcome Watoga State Park, Calvin Price State Forest, and Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park with open arms, as they now not only represent the state of West Virginia in our Dark Sky Places Program, but are also raising awareness for one of the largest and darkest sky-sheds within the eastern United States,” proclaimed Ruskin Hartley, IDA’s Executive Director in a news release on the association’s website.
According to Spencer it should be a big draw for the park.
“There’s a very big community of astronomers and just general folk who enjoy the dark sky and looking at stars, meteor showers and that sort of thing,” he said. “As light pollution becomes more prevalent in the big city, these folks look for rural areas where they can get out and stay in a cabin or camp or just do a day trip to look at the night sky,”
The designation includes Watoga State Park which is more than 10,000 acres and the Cal Price State Forest and Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park which is almost 10,000 more acres. None of the land is developed or located anywhere near a major city or metropolitan area. The location makes it ideal for what the association was looking for.
Spencer believes it will make their park an attractive destination for yet another user group.