Coolfont Memories

 

Overnight January 26, 2025, there was a big fire at Coolfont, a longtime resort and vacation spot west of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia on Cold Run Valley Road.  The flames took down the twin A-frames that were Treetop House.  Fortunately, no one was injured and firefighters from multiple companies and jurisdictions did a commendable job to put out the fire and keep the flames from spreading.   This is a tough loss for the Omps family that had purchased and rebuilt the resort after the property sat idle for many years.

Having grown up in Berkeley Springs I had a love/hate relationship with Coolfont that eventually evened out as I grew and understood the benefits of having an employer and a destination property to support the local economy.  

Coolfont wasn't just a camping area.  They made a point in their signage and literature that it was Coolfont Re+Creation.  Not merely recreation, but a place to re-create yourself.  In addition to campsites, there were a handful of chalet-style cabins.  Eventually they built a lodge across from Treetop House.

I don’t know exactly when Sam Ashelman moved to Morgan County and bought the Herbert Quick farm property and the acres around there.  It was certainly a going business by the mid1960s.  My uncle, Ed Carroll, brought his family up to visit and they camped there.  My cousin Jon called it Cool-fart, a name that lived on in our family.

I remember going to Coolfont to swim and have picnics with the Nichols family and other friends.  In addition to swimming and fishing, they also rented canoes and paddle boats.  The paddle boats were all named for famous shipwrecks: Titanic, Lusitania, Andrea Doria, there might have been a fourth boat.

 My sister Teresa got a job working in the office in Meadow House.  I don’t know everyone who worked there, but I seem to think that Frani Willard and Al Capen both worked in that building.  One of the features of Meadow House was a glass case that held two black snakes named Bilbo and Frodo.  One day one of the guys who worked at Coolfont walked in and called out, “Hey Teresa!” and flung a long rubber snake at her.  My sister raised her hand and caught it.  I think the guy was disappointed that she didn’t scream.

A few years later my brother Steve started working as a dishwasher at the Treetop House restaurant.  My brother was quite the philosopher it seems.  One of his coworkers told me once that Steve remarked on a very busy day, said, Ours is not to reason why, ours is just to wash and dry.

Coolfont was successful as a rustic resort and campground.  The Ashelmans started to develop the mountainside and subdivided the land into plots.  They aimed to keep the natural wooded environment.  Homes had to blend in with the environment and minimal tree removal. 

My dad, Dwan McBee, was a local insurance agent and he got his Realtor® license and worked on weekends to talk to potential homebuyers.  He had a table set up just inside the main doors of the Treetop House.  He had binders with photos of model homes and map showing the mountainside with all the lots.

It was during this time that I started spending a lot of time at Coolfont.  I’d go with my dad on Sundays.  He would work and I would find a place to read and finish my homework.  In warmer weather I could sit at a table on the deck.  It was a great place to hang out.  There was a string quartet in residence at one point and I could sit and listen to them rehearse and perform.  The music was so exciting.

Frani Willard organized a weekly hootenanny for the guests.  Frani played the guitar and sang.  My dad also played guitar and sang.  Sometimes my sister would join them.  I didn’t go every Saturday night, but I went pretty regularly, and I knew so many of the songs.  Frani would sing a version of Frankie and Johnnie, Charlie ant the MTA, and Clouds.  My dad had a few regular tunes he liked to sing: Scotch and Soda and Smoke that Cigarette. 

Al Capen worked at Coolfont.  I have no idea what his job title was.  He was a writer, photographer, and naturist.  He would take photos and give nature talks.  Al took beautiful photos of trees, wildflowers, and birds.  He was a brilliant storyteller, and he would combine the stories about nature with his slides. 

One series of photographs that left a lasting impression was about trees and barbed wire.  He said that when farmers would clear a field for grazing, they’d run barbed wire around the field to keep the herd from wandering.  The farmers would erect fence posts, but sometimes they would just tack the barbed wire to a tree.  As the trees continued to grow, it often looked as though the trees were chewing on the barbed wire.  Some of the photographs looked like real faces chewing on something.  He’d usually end with a photo of a tree that he said had gotten rid of the barbed wire.  The tree showed a scar in the bark that looked like a big smile!

In 1975 I met a friend who would change my life.  Lorraine Hall and her husband Jack bought one of the mountainside lots and built a home there.  I met Lorraine through a church choral group.  In time I met Jack and their daughter Jeanne and her children, and their son John.  By knowing Jack and Lorraine I saw Coolfont from a different perspective.  Lorraine was friends with Margaret Ashelman.

Through Margaret, Coolfont became a center for Transcendental Meditation.  The Ashelman’s also established the Coolfont Foundation that supported music performances at Treetop House, the Manor House and at the barn.  Among the guest artists who performed at Manor House were pianists Neil Tilkens and Peter Basquin.

After I moved to Washington, DC for work, I 'd meet people who would ask me were I was from.  Many times when I mentioned Berkeley Springs, WV, people would recognize the town from their knowledge of Coolfont.

The Ashelman family continued to own and operate Coolfont for many years.  Eventually they sold the property to another developer who died in a helicopter accident in the early 2000s.  The recession that hit around that time kept any further development until the Omps family bought the property and breathed new life into the resort.

So many people in Morgan County worked at Coolfont and many others who visited and enjoyed the facilities.  These are just some of my memories.