On Thanksgiving, don't forget Cranberry Glades in Pocahontas County, W. Va.
Nobody lives there because Cranberry Botanical Area is protected and surrounded by the Cranberry Wilderness in the middle of Monongahela National Forest. The elevation is 3,400 feet above sealevel.
The nearest town, Hillsboro, W.Va. (population 245), is 16 miles away.
Over in Hillsboro, the birthplace of Pearl S. Buck. they probably give thanks for cranberries, turkey and the American Way.
More than likely, they give thanks for Pearl S. Buck, the first American woman to receive both the Pulitzer Prize (1932, for The Good Earth) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1938).
The Good Earth made Oprah Book Club Collection in 2004. However, it's found on few top novels list other than Harvard's book store.
She began her life in poverty on her family's farm and ended her life as a millionaire. Along the way Buck played a leading role in major twentieth-century struggles for human rights and established herself as one of the most powerful women of the century.
The bogs in Cranberry Glades are far from the world of Pearl S. Buck. They resemble Canadian peat bogs and are known for cranberries and two carnivorous plants. The bogs were formed by the last Ice Age about 12,000 years ago.
It's an authentic piece of arctic tundra lost in the hills of West Virginia.
The water from the glades meanders through the glades to form the Cranberry River. It joins the Gauley River 25 miles down the mountains at about 1,920 feet above sea level.
