May 20, 2019 - An  ATV trail has hit a milestone mark of more than 50,000 trail permits sold in 2018 as it approaches its seventh anniversary this Memorial Day weekend in Mercer County, West Virginia.

The region’s ATV tourism is promoted in Mercer County. Jeffrey Lusk, executive director of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail, has said Mercer County continues to be one of the fastest-growing counties along the Hatfield-McCoy, and the trail system will be celebrating its seventh anniversary in Mercer on Memorial Day weekend.

Photo by Bluefield Daily Telegraph

“It opened on Memorial Day weekend six years ago, so this will be No. 7,” said Jeffrey Lusk, executive director of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail Authority. “We’ve got our new facility at the top of the mountain in Coaldale and we’ve had a dozen investments in lodging providers. Those are just fantastic. Mercer County continues to be one of our fastest-growing counties, and many years it’s the fastest-growing county.”

One growth indicator hit a new high in 2018 when the Hatfield-McCoy Trail sold 50,031 permits, Lusk said.

“We knew we were going to be close,” he said about exceeding the 50,000 mark. “This is a huge milestone for the trail, and 80 percent of those permits were sold to non-West Virginia residents in 2018. We’re looking at 10 percent growth this year, and we’re possibly on track to sell 55,000 annual permits for 2019.”

Meeting the lodging demand fueled by the ATV tourists arriving in Mercer County has been a challenge ever since the Pocahontas Trail opened.

“We continue to struggle with the capacity issue,” Lusk said. “We’ve got to get more entrepreneur lodging around the trail. We are so dependent on those beds to bring in new people.”

Lusk said he credited stories in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph with encouraging people to “pull the trigger” and go into business around the Hatfield-McCoy Trail.

“We feel like people reading the articles and seeing the growth spur them to make the investments,” he stated.

Entrepreneurs have been urged to open new cabins, ATV parks and campgrounds for the visitors, and now the ones who have opened for business are being urged to consider offering even more rooms and sites.

“We’re really hoping those folks will have an eye to expansion and add beds, add cabins, campsites, acquire a house and remodel it,” Lusk said. “We’d love to see those guys and gals expand what they’re doing. They’re great partners, too.”

The Hatfield-McCoy Trail has also been working with Cornerstone Coal, which has a mining operation near the trail, Lusk said. A new branch was created on the trail this year when the operation opened.

“We worked closely with Cornerstone Coal and they’re working with us every day to ensure we have a trails system that can safely operate around their operations,” Lusk said. “Those guys are great to work with.”

Mayor Louise Stoker of Bramwell said her town had hopes for more business activity when the trail opened seven years ago.

“Well, our hopes did come true in abundance,” Stoker stated. “Our businesses in town are very successful. The changes have been good. ATVs are everywhere. You name it, you see it all along Route 52. We see (ATVs) coming through Bluefield, Bluewell, Brushfork, and ATV resorts.”

Work on new lodgings is continuing in the town, Stoker said. Work on renovating the former Bluestone School near downtown Bramwell is continuing. When finished, it will offer 14 suites and other amenities, Stoker said.

Another reason for making more rooms and campsites available is the fact that ATV riders are now arriving in Mercer County throughout the year.

“In the early years there were down times in the winter, but we did not have a breakdown for ATV traffic this past winter,” Stoker said. “People were here every week — riders, that is. So it’s all good.”