History-tourism promoted at Marion County Founder's Day celebration

Jan. 26—FAIRMONT — Dora Kay Grubb summoned Boaz Flemming and Francis H. and Julia Pierpont out of history to regale visitors to the Marion County Convention and Visitors Center with stories of the founding of Fairmont and West Virginia on Thursday.

Then they passed out cake.

Of course, it was reenactors putting on a performance, but it lent an air of tangibility to the Marion County Historical Society's celebration of Founder's Month. The event Grubb held at the CVB took place on the same day as Francis H. Pierpont's birthday. Pierpont is known as the father of West Virginia. Boaz Fleming set Fairmont's creation into motion. His birthday was earlier this month. Pamela and Art Dodds portrayed the Pierponts.

"I think it puts you more in the field of the time in the century and so forth," Grubb said. "They're very good about having the history precise, they perform all over the state, in fact, several states that they have gone to. They are both doctors and they have spent the last 20 years perfecting the Pierponts, and studying them."

A central theme pervaded the event.

The importance of knowing history to avoid repeating it, which was explicitly acknowledged by Marion County Commission President Ernie VanGilder, who presented a proclamation to Grubb listing several important dates related to Fairmont and Marion County's foundation that took place in January. The proclamation declared January to be Founder's Month as a result.

However, more than anything else, the event was an example of how highlighting Fairmont's and Marion County's local history could be used to leverage tourism in the area. Grubb cited the statue of Pierpont that Wheeling raised outside Independence Hall as having single handedly raised tourism by 20% to the town. She thinks highlighting local history could do the same here.

And the Marion County area has a lot of local history to offer, Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Leisha Elliot said.

"People travel for lots of different reasons and tourism, cultural and history tourism plays into that," she said. "You have a lot of people who are just intrigued by history and want to follow history, whether it's their own family history and they want to learn more, or the history of an area or of a state."

She added that between what information lies at the historical society in Mannington and Fairmont, as well as Woodlawn Cemetery, there' are a lot of opportunities for people to explore area history. The region also has a rich industrial and coal-related history that's there to be discovered.

One devastatingly simple measure to bring tourists to the area's historical sites that hasn't been done yet is to place signs on the interstate.

"When I travel and I see signs saying that there's a particular historical event or statue that you can get off the interstate to look at, I usually pull off and look at it," Marion County Commissioner Linda Longstreth said. "I think what we need to do, and we can make progress with this, is to go to our state legislators because they must pass those resolutions to put things on the highway."

Maria Fiore and Lily Bailes were two West Virginia University students who were there as part of their internship with the Disability Action Center.

The organization was at the Founders event as part of a field trip to cap off a lesson about local history. Fiore and Bailes found the presentation delivered by the Pierponts and Fleming interesting. Bailes in particular was taken in by the history, nodding and smiling along as Francis Pierpont delivered the story of how West Virginia became a state. What makes both interns the perfect litmus test for what Grubb and others are trying to achieve is that both are out of state students. Fiore hails from New Jersey, and Bailes comes from Virginia.

"I live in Northern Virginia but I always love to go to Northern Virginia historical spots," Bailes said. "There are a lot of spots very similar to Fairmont that are a little bit smaller but it still has significant history around it. And I always do that when I'm in Virginia, so I think the same could be done in West Virginia and having a big historical thing here. And making it into something would be amazing."

Fiore agrees. Like Bailes, she didn't know much about the Fairmont or Marion County area.

"I just didn't know how much went on here," Fiore said. "Especially if you're into history. I think it'd be a good thing to do with your friends and just to get more knowledge. I feel like a lot of people that go to WVU too don't know about Fairmont. So knowing that there's such historical significance here, I think it'd be very interesting for groups to come here."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com