America's Scenic Byways

Cheat Mountain Backway

3.32 miles - Allow 15 minutes.

This small section of the original Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike runs south of Highway 250. It switchbacks up to the top of Cheat Mountain where, from the summer of 1861 until spring of 1862, Union troops camped at the Civil War Cheat Summit Fort. The Monongahela National Forest site is fully interpreted with trails and an overlook. The turnpike route past the fort is now impassable, so the backway returns to the highway via the more direct Cheat Summit Fort road (marked by signs.)