I’m currently at our vacation home in Green Bank, West Virginia, a recently built custom log cabin located at 2,700 feet elevation. The county we’re located in, Pocahontas County, has a yearround population of 9,000. In area, it is three and a half times larger than Cape May County.
Standing in my driveway, I was talking to a local guy this morning. He’s about 50 years old, and drives a school bus in the morning and afternoon, and in between shuffling kids he drives a dump truck for a gravel pit company. He was delivering gravel to me, as he has twice in the past year. We always take the time to stop and chat.
The topic turned to New Jersey. “I live in Cape May County, which is at the southernmost tip of the state,” I said. “We have 100,000 yearround residents, but on any given day in the summer there are 750,000 people in the county.” He seemed to be digesting the information. “We’re at the shore and we have no industry,” I continued. “Tourism is our only industry.”
That touched a nerve, much to my surprise. “I hate tourism,” he said. “It’s ruined our county. I feel strongly about that.” I shrugged, leaving him room to continue. “They’ve driven up the prices. You can’t afford land here anymore. Our kids just don’t have a chance to buy a home here.”
Aha! Didn’t that sound familiar. I’ve heard the same rant from locals in Cape May County. The two counties are similar in demographics, if not in size. Each has 50% yearround homes and 50% second homes. We, of course, have the shore. Pocahontas has Snowshoe Ski Resort, called “the most popular ski resort in the south”.
That has fueled a profusion of condominiums and townhomes atop the mountain, in addition to large single family homes at the base of the mountain. Then there’s the non-skiers, like City Girl and myself, who enjoy the mountains and beautiful spring, summer, and autumn weather. A summer heat wave in Pocahontas is 83 degrees. It has the headwaters of eight rivers, the most of any county in the entire United States, earning it the name “The Birthplace of Rivers”. It also has the distinction of being the county with the highest average elevation east of the Mississippi River. As you can see, it has a lot going for it.
“My kids both had to move away to get decent jobs,” he continued. “There’s nothing here for them.” I stepped in. “It’s the same in Cape May County,” I added. “Our kids all leave, too. There’s not enough high paying jobs. Plus, the kids want action, so they move to metropolitan Philadelphia or New York. It’s too boring for them where we live.”
He didn’t bite on that one. He wasn’t going to admit that the twenty-something kids from Pocahontas want to live near restaurants, malls, theaters, and such. In Pocahontas, you can barely find a pizza place after 7:00pm. He grew up here in Pocahontas, and wasn’t about to accept that there was nothing to do for today’s young, independent adults.
It was time to bring the conversation full circle. “You know what?”, I asked, not expecting an answer. “When our kids get to be 40 or 45 years old, a lot of them will move back. They’ll find out that the things you and I enjoy are worth coming back for. The simple pleasures.”
He nodded, and we parted. We were both content in the feeling that where we live – Pocahontas for him and Cape May County for me – was the cream of the crop, life at its best. Maybe that’s why tourists love it so much?!
- Mountain Man
Tags: Cape May County NJ, Pocahontas County WV, real estate blog