On a warm 2008 July morning Donna and I arrived at the Van Camp Cemetery to take pictures of this beautiful place in Wetzel County West Virginia on Route 180 south of New Martinsville and about two miles from the Ohio River as the crow flies. Route 180 is the most recent road through Van Camp having been predated by a road “in and out” of the Point Pleasant Creek and Old Route 18 originally dirt and gravel and later asphalt. A traveler can arrive at the Van Camp Cemetery from Paden City if he is traveling north on Route 2 along the Ohio River from Parkersburg or St Mary’s, West Virginia, by turning right on Paden Fork and turning left on Route 180.   If the traveler is arriving from Wheeling, Moundsville, or New Martinsville, he would turn left on Route 180 south of New Martinsville.

The cemetery is about three miles from New Martinsville and about the same from Paden City. Van Camp Cemetery greeted us as it appears in the picture to the left surrounded by deep green shade and the graveyard itself covered by bright morning sun. These pictures above left and right were taken from the southwestern corner of the cemetery near the gate. I took the picture from a neighbor’s property where the lawn is kept nicely as one looks into the cemetery.

A lovely sign is posted on the south part of the fence, “Van Camp Cemetery.” As you look east into the morning sun, you see a lovely knoll which gives the cemetery its natural contour. The knoll slopes to the north and south and the hill slopes downhill from east to west. What a perfect natural arrangement for a cemetery. The pioneers chose a lovely site for their Van Camp Cemetery. As you enter the gate, the southern part of Van Camp Cemetery will gradually unfold before you.  The morning sun is approaching noon when the cemetery experiences its most intense light.

Stop often as you trudge upward to notice the more recent graves to your left. Some of them are very old, however. I recall burials in this area during my childhood in the Van Camp community. Many stories could be told of grief and tragedy as I recall the lives and deaths of my Van Camp relatives. Let’s journey onward to the haven above us where the cemetery started in the early 1800’s when the Van Camp area was first settled. We will advance out of the sun into the welcomed shade of the back of the Van Camp Cemetery. Don’t forget to stop often to enjoy this unique knoll between the beautiful West Virginia hills.

I almost cropped the picture to the right before I realized that it is the picture where the visitor is drawn into the old part of the cemetery by the closing trees, grass, and shade of the West Virginia hills. Here the beautiful blue of a July morning sky meets verdant green of the trees and grass. What a place of quiet for those resting here.