overlooks the town During colonial times in 1748,
George Washington, then just 16 years old, was part of the team that surveyed the
eastern panhandle region for
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Washington returned several times over the next several years with his half-brother, Lawrence, who was ill, hoping that the warm springs might improve his health. The springs, and their rumored medicinal benefits, attracted numerous
Native Americans and Europeans to the area. While vacationing in the area in 1767, Washington noted how busy the colonial town had become. Lord Fairfax had built a summer home there and a "private bath," making the area a popular destination for
Virginia's social elite. With the advent of independence,
An act for establishing a town at the Warm Springs in the county of Berkeley was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in December 1776. Officially, the town was named
Bath, in honor of England's spa city
Bath. George Washington, his family members, and several colonial elites were among the town's first landowners. The town's main north-south street was named Washington, and the main east-west street was named Fairfax. Also, four acres were set aside for "suffering humanity." The area around the springs always was public land known as
The Grove and overseen by a state-appointed group of Bath Trustees. This would become
Berkeley Springs State Park with its springs and bathhouses, which was made part of the West Virginia state park system in 1925. Nearby,
Cacapon State Park was opened in 1933. The mountain that gives its name to the park has an elevation of above sea level. Bath's population increased during and immediately after the Revolutionary War, as wounded soldiers and others came to the area believing that the warm springs had medicinal qualities.
Chronology of names In 1772, the springs were part of the newly formed Berkeley County, named after its colonial governor, Norborne Berkeley. The waters became known as Berkeley Springs because the existing protocol was to name springs after the colonial Virginia county in which they were located. Previously, the area had been called
Warm Springs and
Medicinal Springs among other names. Bath became known permanently to the world as
Berkeley Springs in 1802 when the Virginia postal system was established in the new nation, and there already was a Bath, Virginia, in
Bath County. In 1861, many residents of Virginia were opposed to Virginia's secession from the United States, some calling the act of secession treasonous. Following the
Wheeling Conventions of 1861, a referendum was held in 41 mostly northwestern Virginia counties on whether to secede from Virginia and seek admission to the United States as a new state. An overwhelming majority of voters in these counties voted in favor of the proposal. Confederates commanded by
Stonewall Jackson captured Bath during the
Romney Expedition in January 1862, and ransacked the homes of local unionists. The United States admitted the State of West Virginia on June 20, 1863. Berkeley Springs remained the conventional name used for the town. Its
sister city is Bath, England. ==Geography==