Upper Tract, West Virginia Explained

Upper Tract
Settlement Type:Unincorporated community
Pushpin Map:West Virginia#USA
Pushpin Map Caption:Location within the state of West Virginia
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:United States
Subdivision Type1:State
Subdivision Name1:West Virginia
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Name2:Pendleton
Unit Pref:Imperial
Population As Of:2000
Population Density Km2:auto
Timezone:Eastern (EST)
Utc Offset:-5
Timezone Dst:EDT
Utc Offset Dst:-4
Elevation Ft:1558
Coordinates:38.7872°N -79.2825°W
Postal Code Type:ZIP codes
Blank Name:FIPS code
Blank1 Name:GNIS feature ID
Blank1 Info:1555861

Upper Tract is an unincorporated community in Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States.

Description

The community lies along U.S. Highway 220 at the confluence of Reeds Creek and the South Branch Potomac River. It has a post office with a ZIP Code of 26866.

The community took its name from a nearby 18th-century pioneer settlement.[1] Two local structures — the Cunningham-Hevener House and the Pendleton County Poor Farm — are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Upper Tract is notable as one of the driest places in the United States east of the Mississippi River, owing to an isolated rain shadow from Spruce Knob to the west.[2] Between 1899 and 1930 Upper Tract averaged only 28.821NaN1 of precipitation, and in the extreme drought year of 1930 it received a remarkably low 9.51NaN1 for the entire year — the lowest annual precipitation ever recorded in the US east of the Mississippi,[3] and indeed less than fell during that year in such dry cities as Tucson and San Diego.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Kenny, Hamill. West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains. 1945. The Place Name Press. Piedmont, WV. 641.
  2. Leffler. Robert J.. A Distinct Precipitation Shadow in the Valley of the South Branch Potomac River, West Virginia. National Weather Digest. November 1977. 21-24.
  3. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20211106161122/https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/special/minann.pdf. November 6, 2021. Record Minimum Annual Precipitation by State. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.