Asturian-American Migration Forum

With West Virginia University Press's forthcoming Pinnick Kinnick Hill due out sometime in July 2003, I'm wondering if any one has stories about this place. (see Art's post in Upcoming Events).

Pinnick Kinnick Hill, I think, is located near the North View area of Clarksburg, West Virginia where many Spaniards and Italians lived. Pinnickinnick is a name carried by this place since the days of the Civil War. It was rich in coal, and also immigrant history! Several folks I talked to had memories of playing in this area as children, but I would like to learn more about it. Hope you can help.

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I was there last weekend. Suronda's father, Ron, told us how to get there. You go up the hill by driving heading south, I think, up the street to the east side of the courthouse in Clarksburg. This is a sizeable hill, so you drive more than a mile (I'm guessing) to get to the top. There are two turns, as I recall (right turns, I think), but the key is to head toward the YMCA, which is located on top of the hill in a park-like setting. The last 1/4 mile or so of the route is on the grounds of the YMCA. You may have to walk in if the gate is locked, as it was last Sunday.

If anyone has street names, please fill us in!

The hill is supposed to have entrenchments from the Civil War era. The hill overlooks most of Clarksburg, so this would be a logical site to station the Union forces who (I'm assuming) kept Clarksburg nailed down so the railroad and coal would keep moving during the war.

The view from on top in all directions would be fantastic if it weren't for all the scrubby trees that have grown up in the past few years. I would guess that the hill has seen a good deal of earth-moving in the past couple of decades, because there are plenty of flat areas for recreation. The hill was lushly green in late April.

Oops. Suronda just wrote an email to tell me I was lost!

In her words:

Just read your post about Pinnick Kinnick Hill, and I think that you've located LOWNDES Hill - that's where I heard the YMCA was located....

Remembering from the book, Pinnick Kinnick Hill is located adjacent to North View. From your description, the place you visited is across from Clarksburg neighborhood called "North View." I know that the kids used to play there, and they didn't have to really leave North View....so my guess is that from Loundes Hill, you can see directly onto Pinnickinnick Hill.

Suronda is right: we were definitely not next to North View, but could see it in the distance. I'll look at my photos and see if one of them might be Pinnick Kinnick Hill.

Oh, well, at least it was a pleasant walk!

Has anyone else really been to Pinnick Kinnick Hill? Can you give us directions to it?

Through Art's connection with www.avilesenlahistoria.com, the Avilés journalist Alvarez-Buylla has found www.asturianus.org, and today´s La Nueva España (Avilés edition) mentions Pinnick Kinnick Hill's (the book's) imminent publication. Here´s the URL:

http://www.lne.es/secciones/aviles/noti ... Noticia=25&

I just returned from Spelter, spending a week visiting many of the areas in and around Clarksburg.

In trying to understand where PK Hill is versus PK Addition to Clarksburg, I discovered the following with the help of Jim Jack, Harrison County Sheriff.

PK Hill is the hill opposite the UCAR (formerly Union Carbide) factory in Anmoore, and the Anmoore fire department fire house sits at the base of the hill. There is a white wooden Protestant church that stills stands on that hill, off of I-79 Interstate.

PK Addition to Clarksburg is an area west of Summit Park and includes a hill with homes, warehouses and some light industrial plants. There is a street named Pinnickinnick in the PK Addition. If you like Italian style peppers, the Oliverio family has a small plant in that area on Ohio Avenue that produces (if my opinion) the best. PK Addition hill would back into North View to the west. I believe at one time there was a coal mine in that hill called PK mines. I could find the trail where the tracks once ran possibly to that mine.

I too was very confused when you have a PK Addition to Clarksburg and a PK Hill, and not in the same location. In the "Pinnick Kinnick Hill, An American Story" by G. W. Gonzalez, the PK Hill referrenced is in Anmoore.
The distance between PK Addition and PK Hill in Anmoore is several miles apart.

Hope I got it right.

I think you've nailed it, Ken. Suronda and I had been discussing this with little success. It's really helpful that you've figured out the source of the confusion!

Suronda's contacts remembered a PK Hill near Northview, which agrees with what you've discovered.

From reading Pinnickkinnick Hill, it's sure seemed to me that all of the events that he says happened on Pinnickkinnick Hill (along with his musings at the end of the book) occurred overlooking Anmoore.

My mom remembers that as a child in the 30's and 40s, she called that hill "El Pico". She and her friends used to find arrowheads there, so it may have been a favored gathering place for many centuries.

In recent years, a Anmoore city councilman told us, the hill was topped so as to create a large level spot. I think there are tennis courts or basketball courts there now. Early this summer, we found that the trees had grown up so much that it's difficult to see the town below.

Ken and Art,

Just a reminder too that in his book PINNICK KINNICK HILL, Gavin Gonzalez did lots of playing with names. Perhaps his Pinnick Kinnick Hill is used to represent the Spanish community more generally, and isn't always so associated with one specific place or another. I'll have to read through the book again and think about this question. Art's comments seem to suggest that PK Hill is most often situated in Anmoore.

Pinnick Kinnick Hill

Thanks for clarifiying some of the finer points, Ken, about both locations. I agree with you about Oliverio's Peppers!

S.

Suronda,

you are so right on how Gonzalez played with names in his book. When I was reading the book I can to keep reminding myself of the locations he was referencing, such as Coalton for Spelter (Ziesing). One of my uncles gave up reading the book because of the location confusion. He hadn't taken time to read the forward and notes, especially on page XXIX, footnote 6, giving the location cross-reference.

To have a little fun with all on the location of PK Hill, there is another book out titled "Images of America, Harrison County" by Robert F. Stealey (he is an editor with the Clarksburg paper). On page 55 there is a 1920's picture of Clarksburg's Broad Oaks section at the intersection of Lynn Street and Quincy Street with Pinnickinnick Hill in the background. That picture angle would indicate Pinnickinnick Hill in PK Addition to Clarksburg(there is also a street in PK Addition named Pinnickinnick Street), rather than in Anmoore. Quess there might be two PK Hills? For the Gonzalez' book and how Gonzalez describes the grocery store, factory, etc., in Coe's Run/Glencoe (Anmoore) that would place PK Hill in Anmoore. At least the Harrison County Sheriff thinks of PK Hill as in Anmoore.

Gets a little confusing. Over time places can change names. Take Spelter for an example, around 1900 it was called Meadowbrook, when the town and factory site where being developed, then Ziesing, after one of the first plant managers for Grasselli Chemical. I do not know when it became Spelter. Maybe after DuPont purchased Grasselli Chemical?

The search continues?

Ken

Thanks, Suronda and Ken for asking the clarifying questions. When I wrote last night I didn't quite say what I meant, which is:

I'm guessing that PK Hill in reality (like on official maps) is the one north of Clarksburg in the PK Addition, but the PK Hill of Gavin's book is the El Pico of Anmoore.

When I read the book, I didn't find any reference to PK Hill that didn't make sense being in Anmoore. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has different reading of the book.

Of course, I'm not from the area, so I don't know this first hand.

Can someone from Anmoore who knows what El Pico was really called in 1900 and what it's called today? Maybe your sheriff friend knows this, Ken? Did he think it's real name was Pinnickkinnick Hill?