The Greenbrier Resort

Deep in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains, you will find a rare combination of surreal luxury, timeless hospitality and riveting adventure. For more than two centuries, The Greenbrier Resort has served as a playground for presidents, kinds and Hollywood's greatest. Now, it's your turn!!!

The Greenbrier Resort, West Virginia's premier resort destination, with its breathtaking facilities, lush surroundings and gourmet meals awaits us. We will take a tour of the facility with its Dorothy Draper designed interior, and you will be able to shop in the quaint boutiques located both inside the lobby area and outside on the resort grounds. There is even a Christmas Shoppe in a converted train station right outside the main gate.

Carved deep into the mountainside beneath the West Virginia wing is an emergency Cold Ware fallout shelter - The Bunker. Once classified for more than 30 years, The Bunker is now open to all. On this field trip, you will be able to take a guided tour of this historical gem. It even has full house and senate chambers, offices and sleeping quarters for the entire Congress and was kept in constant readiness until it was discovered in 1992.

Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine (BECM)

We will travel 1500 feet beneath the hillsides of New River Park, and then we'll be carried along track in authentic "man cars" to an actual old working area of the coal mine. Stops throughout the tour explore the history of low-seam coal mining from the hang-loading days into the eara of modern mechanization.

In additional to the underground activity, you can tour the historical coal camp situated throughout the grounds. Lovingly restored to give you a true representation of the early 20th century coal camp life: a Coal Company House, the Superintendent's Home, Pemberton Coal Camp Church, the Helen Coal Camp School, and the Company Store where you could purchase just about anything, but you purchased it with Coal Company "scrip" instead of real money.

Living in the early 1900's most people who lived in the coal fields were educated in one or two room schools. The coal camp school at the BECM was built in 1925 up a hollow called Berry Branch in Helen, WV. It served black children that lived in the coal camp. In the coal camp during this time period there were two school buildings - one for the black children and one for the white children. Gradually the one room schools began to decline due to descreasing population and were replaced by "consolidated" schools. The last segregated school closed in 1965 and is now a memory.

New River Gorge

A rugged, white water river, flowing northward through deep canyons, the New River is among the oldest rivers on the North American continent. Our Tuesday evening field trip and dinner will allow conferees breathtaking views of the river, the gorge which the river cuts through the West Virginia mountains, and the engineering marvel which traverses the gorge, the New River Gorge Bridge.

We will make a brief stop at the National Parks Service's Canyon Rim Visitor Center, just north of Fayetteville, WV. Visitors will discover the striking size of the gorge with one of the world's oldest rivers at the bottom. A short hiking trail descends into the gorge on a wooden boardwalk. The boardwalk has two observation decks which offer unobstructed views of the longest steep arch span in the western hemisphere and the mile wide gorge it spans. A fully accessible ramp provides access to the upper observational deck.

Whitewater Adventure

World class whitewater, spectacular scenery and adrenaline pumping rapids are what you will find in this professionally guided whitewater trip down West Virginia's Lower New River. You'll be part of a 6 or 8 person crew in a self-bailing rubber raft. This trip requires all persons in the raft to actively paddle and follow the river guides instructions, to negotiate the class III, IV and V rapids. Life vests, water shoes and other necessary gear are provided. You should be aware that you "WILL CERTAINLY GET WET FROM HEAD TO TOE". This high adventure trip will treat you to whitewater thrills only available in West Virginia.

Charleston

For the less daring among us, we travel to Charleston, our capital city to tour our historic Cass Gilbert designed buff limestone Capitol. The Capitol was dedicated on June 20, 1932 with a construction cost of approximately $10 million. Currently, it has an historical replacement cost of approximately $411 million. We will also tour the elegant 30 room Governor's mansion which was completed in 1925 and made of Harvard Brick with white Corinthian columns and overlooks the Kanawha River. The ground floor of the traditional Georgian colonial structure contains state rooms featuring exquisite antiques and fine detailing while the second floor serves as the governor's private residence.

We will then take a short trip to the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences, a state of the art 240,000 sq. ft. art and science building. The center which opened in July 2003 is home to the West Virginia Symphony and contains a 1880-seat world class theater.