A Peek into Summers County’s Past: Pence Springs Flooding and Drainage

I believe I have mentioned this issue before; if you are familiar with Pence Springs, especially the low spot leading to the bridge that was always blocked during times of “high water,” you know what I am talking about. Prior to this area being raised with large culverts installed to allow high water to flow through without blocking the road, this section of road was blocked at least two or three times a year.

As a child, I can remember my father taking us over to the bridge being blocked off numerous times, to see the “high water.” Then, after the flood of 1996, the state raised this low section by installing large culverts, like I said. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time this area of the road was raised to prevent the road from being closed due to flooding.

I recently found this newspaper article from the Beckley Post-Herald in 1948 titled “Drainage Ditch To Be Opened By Blast.” They created a drainage ditch from one side of the road to the other and back to the river, so during times of high water, as the article states, “raise a low section of the road leading to the bridge, to reduce hazards of high water; which frequently blocks traffic on the road.”

Apparently, 1996 wasn’t the first time this section of road had been raised. This article was published in 1948, which wasn’t raised high enough. The photo you see here is of the flood on February 22, 1953. My grandfather Bernard Thompson and a few of his friends made their way across the mountain from Talcott to see firsthand the car that had been swept away and washed against the phone pole, as you can see, which led to their curiosity because they had been hearing about it.

So this issue continued to happen and still does to this day. Although much less frequently! The flood of 1953 was a crest of 17.43ft in Alderson, and as you can see, the depth and span of the water across the road was impassable. The most recent highwater crest was 15.33ft on February 7, 2025. It did not cross the road, only lapped to the gravel beside it. So the efforts the state made in order to keep this section of road passable have been moderately successful.

I have told this story before, but it is relevant to this piece. My good friend Dale Hedrick went to school with my father at Pence Springs Elementary. He lived on the opposite side of the river from the school. He and other students would walk to school, passing through this low section of road.

The school policy was, in that day, that the students who lived on the other side of the river had to remain at school during high water events until the water crossed the roadway. So Dale and other students would sneak off at lunch time and scrape their feet across the road with all they had to make the water cross the road so they could go home for the day. HaHa