The Staunton-Parkersburg turnpike is an old highway built to connect western Virginia to the more settled parts of the state before the Civil war. It was engineered by Claudius Crozet. Most of the road is now in West Virginia.
The official site of the West Virginia byway following the road has some information about it’s history, but the actual maps are a little lacking.
I’ve driven some of these roads on my way to other places, but I would really like to make the whole trip straight through one day soon.
I made these by hand using the (confusing) map on the site, so if anyone catches any mistakes, let me know!
Byway
The scenic byway set up by West Virginia mostly follows the original path, but uses some new roads that were built to bypass the worst parts of the turnpike. This map and directions are based on that path, with the section still in Virginia added in. Like the West Virginia byway, I followed a newer section of road between Staunton and North Mountain.
Original Turnpike
If you’re more adventurous and don’t mind some twisty dirt roads, this is as close as I could find to the original path. It adds in Old Parkersburg Turnpike near Churchville, VA, Old Pike Road just inside West Virginia, and a series of back roads between Beverly and Buckhannon, WV. One section shown on the map near Durbin does not appear to exist anymore, and another small jog just west of there is no longer a through road.
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