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2014 Map of Belle

Name: 2014 Topographic Map of Belle
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 2014
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 2014

About this map

The Kanawha River corridor serves as the primary artery for industry and transit through this portion of West Virginia, connecting a string of riverside settlements including Marmet, Chesapeake, Belle, and Chelyan. The narrow valley floor is densely packed with infrastructure, from the Island Airport and Scotts Island to the junction of Us-60 and MacCorkle Ave. This transit-heavy riverfront contrasts sharply with the deep, winding hollows and steep ridges of the interior, where the Boone and Kanawha County line snakes across high ground.

Local history is preserved in numerous family and community burial grounds, such as Hoffman Cemeteries, Witcher Cem, and Snodgrass Cem, often situated near former homesteads in locations like Schoolhouse Hollow or Wolfpen Hollow. Higher elevations are marked by landmarks like the Bee Mountain Lookout Tower, which overlooks a landscape of named drainages including Lens Creek and Fields Creek. This industrial and coal-country geography illustrates the transition from river-bottom commerce to the remote, creek-side communities of Winifrede and Comfort.