A West Virginia family with roots around Audra stretching back 175 years donated 47 acres to the state park; one gift increases the entire park by about 13%

A West Virginia family with ties to the Audra area for over 175 years donated 47 acres to Audra State Park. In September, the Thacker family signed over the property at the state Capitol, along with a $15,000 donation for trails and signs on the new property, known as the Thacker Addition, according to a report by West Virginia Explorer News. This is a significant boost for a modest park nestled between two counties in the Appalachian foothills.With this generous donation, Audra State Park will expand from its previous 355 acres to roughly 402 acres. For a relatively small state park, this expansion is substantial. The donated land alone is larger than the 44 acres the state added to the park in 1961.

A generous donation with family ties

On September 3, the family of Victor and Mary Thacker formally donated their property in a ceremonial deed signing at the West Virginia State Capitol. The Thacker family made the donation in honour of Victor Thacker’s great-great-grandparents, Jacob Johnson Thacker and Sarah Ann DeMasters Thacker. These 47 acres of land will provide space for future trail development, according to officials.‘West Virginia State Parks is deeply grateful for this extraordinary gift from the Thacker family,’ Dillard Price, acting chief of West Virginia State Parks, said.He called the generous donation an investment in the state’s natural and cultural heritage. ‘Each acre our state parks protect represents a lasting investment in our state’s natural, cultural and historical resources — a gift that directly benefits future generations.’The Thacker family’s foothold in Barbour County, where the park sits, goes back nearly two centuries. While park officials did not specify whether the donated land itself stayed in family hands throughout those 175 years, the gift points to the family’s enduring ties to the region.Audra itself traces back to a small river community that emerged around the 20th century. By then, five families occupied the spot along the Middle Fork, according to the West Virginia Encyclopedia. A gristmill and sawmill anchored the settlement in those early years. The landscape around it was logged; later, Barbour County 4-H groups used the area as a camp between 1919 and 1923. Later, the state acquired the property. Audra State Park formally opened in 1950, with additional acreage added over the following decade as the park took shape. Today, it is known chiefly for the river gorge, the forest canopy and those established trails. With the Thacker family’s 47-acre donation, the park will see an extension without erasing any of its past.

More room to roam

Audra State Park stretches across Barbour and Upshur counties along the Middle Fork River, a landscape of forested hillsides tumbling towards a rocky corridor, making it a popular destination for outdoor recreation, especially among hikers, swimmers and anglers.The park’s signature hiking route is the Alum Cave Trail, a 2.7-mile loop that follows the Middle Fork through thick forest and beneath a distinctive sandstone overhang known as Alum Cave. West Virginia State Parks also lists a shorter trail called the Rock Cliff Trail. The Thacker Addition opens possibilities for expanding those options, though park officials have not yet released designs for the new trails the funding will support. Officials have also not revealed the location of the new plot, and it is unknown whether it includes river frontage. Regardless, this additional land will create more opportunities for hiking at the park. Park officials have not announced final designs for the trails yet. However, this generous donation means future visitors to Audra will have more ground to explore, more of the river gorge to hike and more reasons to return.