
The original entrance to Coonskin Park was located on Coonskin Drive, off Greenbrier Street, in this photo taken on June 4, 2025.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-MailRome may not have been built in a day, according to the old adage attesting to the need for time and patience to complete great works. But 75 years ago this week, it took only two days for an impatient army of volunteers to build Kanawha County's Coonskin Park.
The two-day construction blitz, named "Operation Coonskin," was organized and promoted by The Charleston Gazette, in cooperation with area construction contractors, heavy equipment dealers, labor unions, National Guard engineering units, Boy Scouts and scores of unaffiliated volunteers.
The idea for building a public park in the area known then as Coonskin Hollow dates back to the mid-1940s, when county officials began planning the development of a new airport through a 9 million-cubic-yard earth-moving project on the adjacent Coonskin Ridge.

Heather Felix and daughter Isabella, 8, of St. Albans, paddle around the lake on July 15, 2012, at Coonskin Park.
Gazette-Mail file photoIn the land below the proposed Kanawha Airport, according to a Charleston Gazette editorial of the time, "there is a gently sloping area of at least half a mile in length and 2,000-feet in width that is admirably adapted for playgrounds, picnic spots and other recreation."
Since "possibilities for development of the lower levels of the airport site as a recreational area are limitless, and the Charleston area is woefully deficient in parks, mainly because of the limited level space in the Valley," a plan to develop a new park in Coonskin Hollow "cannot be too ambitious," the editorial concluded.

Coonskin Park plans were advanced rapidly at the first official business meeting of the new park commission appointed by the Kanawha County Court. Commission President Paul Anderson points out a spot on the map of the park for future development. Seated, on May 17, 1951, in the conference room at Kanawha Airport are (from left) Commission Vice President Lynn Goshorn, Commission member M.M. Alexander Jr., Anderson, Elsa Richardson, stenographer to the commission; Park Superintendent and Commission Secretary Frank Gillespie and Commission member James G. Carper. Standing are members of the county court, John M. Slack Jr., Court President Mont Cavender and Carl C. Calvert.
Gazette-Mail file photoThe Kanawha County Commission agreed, announcing in 1945 that several hundred acres of land adjoining the airport would be set aside for a park, to serve as a "living, growing memorial" honoring military personnel who died in World War I and the recently ended World War II.
In 1948, Kanawha County voters approved a $200,000 bond issue, allowing the county commission to buy an 825-acre tract of land downslope from the new airport and begin transforming it into a public park.

Hikers head toward Coonskin Park’s Alice Knight Memorial Trail on Oct. 16, 2022. At the time, Yeager Airport officials were exploring a plan to extend the runway into Coonskin Park, which would pile dirt and fill higher than the runway landing lights, which can be seen in the background.
Gazette-Mail file photo'Operation Coonskin will be the biggest thing of its kind'
While land for the proposed park was soon bought through the bond issue, no work had been done to develop the tract into a park more than a year after the bond was passed.
So, in 1949, another Gazette editorial appeared. This one bemoaned the fact that no park construction had yet to occur and complained that "this $200,000 bond-approved acreage apparently remains just so much wordage on a pigeon-holed legal document while the summer sun sizzles out with 96 degrees."

Paul Anderson, chairman in charge of “Operation Coonskin,” receives a coonskin cap for his efforts in this Gazette clip from the late 1940s or early 1950s.
Gazette-Mail file photoIn early 1950, Charleston construction contractor Paul R. Anderson, of Anderson's Inc., and Ted Coleman, of Baldwin Machinery, first broached the idea of building the park through a private, volunteer effort, according to a Gazette article of that time.
"It's high time that Kanawha County should come to the front with a park that will equal or surpass any other park in the state," Coleman said at the time.
The county commission, with considerably less than $200,000 from the bond issue available to build out the park after paying for the land, lent its support to the planned private-sector initiative, and loaned the services of the county engineer to draw up design plans for the park.
Frank Knight, the Gazette's former promotions director and future editor, then serving as assistant to the publisher, made calls to other area contractors, equipment dealers, construction suppliers and labor leaders to gauge interest in moving forward with an initial phase of park development to be performed and financed entirely by citizen volunteers.

A B&O steam engine with a train of passenger cars sits on the tracks near the new Coonskin Park in the summer of 1950. At right are workers who were part of "Operation Coonskin" to build the park from scratch on June 27-28, 1950. Donated labor, materials and heavy equipment helped bring about the rapid transformation of an old farm into a valuable recreational asset. When the construction blitz ended, the new park had lakes, picnic shelters, grills, an access road and a dance pavilion. Earl Benton/Daily Mail
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Coonskin Park plans were advanced rapidly at the first official business meeting of the new park commission appointed by the Kanawha County Court. Commission President Paul Anderson points out a spot on the map of the park for future development. Seated, on May 17, 1951, in the conference room at Kanawha Airport are (from left) Commission Vice President Lynn Goshorn, Commission member M.M. Alexander Jr., Anderson, Elsa Richardson, stenographer to the commission; Park Superintendent and Commission Secretary Frank Gillespie and Commission member James G. Carper. Standing are members of the county court, John M. Slack Jr., Court President Mont Cavender and Carl C. Calvert.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

High school boys' cross-country runners set out on the course from the starting line in the Charleston Catholic Irish Invitational meet at Coonskin Park on Sept. 11, 2024. Catholic's Will Barton (2514) was the eventual winner.
- CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photo

Hoppy's Little Express train makes its way past the Coonskin Park clubhouse loaded with passengers to see the Christmas lights set up throughout the park during the third annual Christmas at Coonskin tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 3, 2024. Hundreds of people stood in line for a train ride, "The train ride line is longer than the Santa Claus line and that's saying something," Kanawha County Commission President Lance Wheeler said at the event. "It's nice to have something closer to eastern Kanawha County."
- CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photo

Kanawha Valley Railroad Association member Ayden Willard reaches for a model train car as Gus Sotomayer, 7, of Cottageville, looks on at the 2023 Christmas Model Train Open House at Coonskin Park on Dec. 9, 2023.
- CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photo

Hikers head toward Coonskin Park’s Alice Knight Memorial Trail on Oct. 16, 2022. At the time, Yeager Airport officials were exploring a plan to extend the runway into Coonskin Park, which would pile dirt and fill higher than the runway landing lights, which can be seen in the background.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

David Rastle (left) and John Hackney will be ready for small game season in West Virginia when it opens for bow hunters. The two live near Coonskin Park and were practicing recently. A bow hunting fan since 1949, Hackney taught Rastle the sport and both men plan to go hunt the wilds of Pendleton County. Oct. 11, 1973 photo by William Tiernan.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

The bright sunshine prompted youngsters and oldsters alike to flock to public recreation facilities in Kanawha County. A number of the pedal-driven boats at the Coonskin Park Lake were occupied by water enthusiasts. April 16, 1973, photo by Jack Kern.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Spring fun at Coonskin Park was on the schedule for this group of Ruffner Elementary fourth-graders on April 20, 1973. The students in Mrs. Reed Hall's class took a spin on the park's merry-go-round. Photo by Ferrell Friend.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Jeff Hutchinson, director of Kanawha County Parks and Recreation, talks, on July 23, 2021, about the proposed changes coming to Coonskin Park. The parks commission is seeking between $6 million and $7 million in funding for the project.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

“She has been wanting to build a snowman all year,” said John Fleck, of Elkview, referring to his 4-year-old daughter, Makenna. On March 8, 2019 at Coonskin Park, the snow was just right for the Flecks to finally build their snowman.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Charleston YMCA participants hike the Elk River trail at Coonskin Park on June 28, 2015. As part of a nationwide initiative to combat the “summer slide” of inactivity, area Y’s are hosting events to keep students engaged in mind and body.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

David Bowen, 50, of Charleston, faces felony charges of wrongful injury to timber, destruction of property and obtaining property by false pretenses for allegedly stealing timber from Coonskin Park, shown here on May 8, 2014.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

A B&O steam engine with a train of passenger cars sits on the tracks near the new Coonskin Park in the summer of 1950. At right are workers who were part of "Operation Coonskin" to build the park from scratch on June 27-28, 1950. Donated labor, materials and heavy equipment helped bring about the rapid transformation of an old farm into a valuable recreational asset. When the construction blitz ended, the new park had lakes, picnic shelters, grills, an access road and a dance pavilion. Earl Benton/Daily Mail
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Coonskin Park plans were advanced rapidly at the first official business meeting of the new park commission appointed by the Kanawha County Court. Commission President Paul Anderson points out a spot on the map of the park for future development. Seated, on May 17, 1951, in the conference room at Kanawha Airport are (from left) Commission Vice President Lynn Goshorn, Commission member M.M. Alexander Jr., Anderson, Elsa Richardson, stenographer to the commission; Park Superintendent and Commission Secretary Frank Gillespie and Commission member James G. Carper. Standing are members of the county court, John M. Slack Jr., Court President Mont Cavender and Carl C. Calvert.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

High school boys' cross-country runners set out on the course from the starting line in the Charleston Catholic Irish Invitational meet at Coonskin Park on Sept. 11, 2024. Catholic's Will Barton (2514) was the eventual winner.
- CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photo

Hoppy's Little Express train makes its way past the Coonskin Park clubhouse loaded with passengers to see the Christmas lights set up throughout the park during the third annual Christmas at Coonskin tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 3, 2024. Hundreds of people stood in line for a train ride, "The train ride line is longer than the Santa Claus line and that's saying something," Kanawha County Commission President Lance Wheeler said at the event. "It's nice to have something closer to eastern Kanawha County."
- CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photo

Kanawha Valley Railroad Association member Ayden Willard reaches for a model train car as Gus Sotomayer, 7, of Cottageville, looks on at the 2023 Christmas Model Train Open House at Coonskin Park on Dec. 9, 2023.
- CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photo

Hikers head toward Coonskin Park’s Alice Knight Memorial Trail on Oct. 16, 2022. At the time, Yeager Airport officials were exploring a plan to extend the runway into Coonskin Park, which would pile dirt and fill higher than the runway landing lights, which can be seen in the background.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

David Rastle (left) and John Hackney will be ready for small game season in West Virginia when it opens for bow hunters. The two live near Coonskin Park and were practicing recently. A bow hunting fan since 1949, Hackney taught Rastle the sport and both men plan to go hunt the wilds of Pendleton County. Oct. 11, 1973 photo by William Tiernan.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

The bright sunshine prompted youngsters and oldsters alike to flock to public recreation facilities in Kanawha County. A number of the pedal-driven boats at the Coonskin Park Lake were occupied by water enthusiasts. April 16, 1973, photo by Jack Kern.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Spring fun at Coonskin Park was on the schedule for this group of Ruffner Elementary fourth-graders on April 20, 1973. The students in Mrs. Reed Hall's class took a spin on the park's merry-go-round. Photo by Ferrell Friend.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Jeff Hutchinson, director of Kanawha County Parks and Recreation, talks, on July 23, 2021, about the proposed changes coming to Coonskin Park. The parks commission is seeking between $6 million and $7 million in funding for the project.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

“She has been wanting to build a snowman all year,” said John Fleck, of Elkview, referring to his 4-year-old daughter, Makenna. On March 8, 2019 at Coonskin Park, the snow was just right for the Flecks to finally build their snowman.
- Gazette-Mail file photo

Charleston YMCA participants hike the Elk River trail at Coonskin Park on June 28, 2015. As part of a nationwide initiative to combat the “summer slide” of inactivity, area Y’s are hosting events to keep students engaged in mind and body.
- Gazette-Mail file photo





As it turned out, following a three-hour organizational meeting of Operation Coonskin in May 1950, the interest was there, with those attending agreeing to commit the money, machinery and muscle needed to get the job done — all during a two-day onslaught of construction activity.
"Operation Coonskin will be the biggest thing of its kind ever held by this community," Knight predicted at the end of the meeting.
The following day, an article in the Gazette announced that "Operation Coonskin — the two-day building of a public park — is underway, sponsored by The Gazette in cooperation with the Associated General Contractors of West Virginia, the Kanawha County members of the West Virginia Contractors Association, the Associated Equipment Dealers, the Charleston Building Contractors Association and many other business and civil groups."
Committees were formed to plan the construction of:
- Access roads
- Two fishing ponds
- Four large picnic shelters
- Nine outdoor fireplaces
- 50 picnic tables
- A playground
- A baseball diamond
- Restrooms

Wallace Van Meter, 9, and his mother, Eryn, both of Charleston, fish at Coonskin Park Lake on June 4, 2025.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-MailOther committees worked to organize earth-moving activity and secure the use of equipment and the operators needed to get that job done.
Paul Anderson was named Operation Coonskin chairman, while Knight became the organization's vice chairman.
During the two months preceding the Operation Coonskin blitz, weekly planning meetings were held, all well-covered by Gazette reporters, who also profiled committee chairmen and announced requests for construction materials, in an effort to build public interest and participation in the project.
The two-day construction blitz

Donna Carney, of Charleston, takes a walk in the brisk morning air of Oct. 29, 2019, in Coonskin Park under the changing leaves.
Gazette-Mail file photoWhile most park construction took place on June 27-28, 1950, some work needed to be done ahead of that.
Several pieces of earth-moving equipment arrived in Coonskin Hollow on June 18 to accommodate preliminary dozing and grading of a mile-long access road into the park. The installation of drainage pipe along the new road began the following day by volunteers from the Kanawha Valley affiliate of the American Federation of Labor.
On June 24, 50 soldiers from a West Virginia Army National Guard combat engineering company based in Parkersburg began installing a temporary pontoon footbridge across the Elk River to carry workers to the construction site from the U.S. 119 side of the river.
On June 25, a 2-mile-long parade of park-bound construction equipment, which Gazette reporter Charles Armentrout termed "the greatest concentrated movement of giant construction machinery in West Virginia history," rumbled its way through downtown Charleston, to generate enthusiasm for Operation Coonskin.

A B&O steam engine with a train of passenger cars sits on the tracks near the new Coonskin Park in the summer of 1950. At right are workers who were part of "Operation Coonskin" to build the park from scratch on June 27-28, 1950. Donated labor, materials and heavy equipment helped bring about the rapid transformation of an old farm into a valuable recreational asset. When the construction blitz ended, the new park had lakes, picnic shelters, grills, an access road and a dance pavilion. Earl Benton/Daily Mail
Gazette-Mail file photoMeanwhile, the B&O Railroad, whose tracks ran through the Coonskin Park tract, announced plans to carry construction workers to and from the work site, along with onlookers interested in seeing well-orchestrated construction activity involving behemoth vehicles. Several bus routes followed suit.
Mud from heavy rain greeted the army of more than 400 volunteers when they arrived at the Coonskin Park site on June 27 to begin the two-day effort to build and open the new public recreation complex. But a blazing summer sun quickly dried the mire, allowing men and equipment to get to work.
Starting at dawn that day, "400 perspiring workers and two score of giant machines moved into the 820 acres of Coonskin Park and labored through the day with stunning success," according to a Gazette account of the activity. "Some who came to the park as spectators stayed to help with the work," with many of the volunteers working until dark.

Eddie Moore (foreground) and his son, Deacon, 15, of Sissonville, golf at Coonskin Park on June 4, 2025.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-MailBoy Scouts assembled picnic tables and directed traffic, while more than 100 American Federation of Labor volunteers raised and completed all four large, rustic picnic shelters, and equipment operators moved earth to form two 3-acre fishing ponds and prepared the access road for surfacing.
The following day, work also began at daybreak, with dozens of truckloads of slag arriving to be spread and rolled atop the newly graded access road, while finishing touches were applied to the ponds, baseball diamond, outdoor fireplaces, dance pavilion and restrooms.
Charleston merchants donated ice cream, soft drinks, milk, coffee, cigarettes and a barbecued steer to feed and refresh the army of volunteers, while the Red Cross doled out salt tablets to workers to guard against heat stroke.

Spring fun at Coonskin Park was on the schedule for this group of Ruffner Elementary fourth-graders on April 20, 1973. The students in Mrs. Reed Hall's class took a spin on the park's merry-go-round. Photo by Ferrell Friend.
Gazette-Mail file photoWhile construction was underway elsewhere in the park, children began using the newly built playground area, climbing on a jungle gym and pumping their way skyward on swings.
Millionaire heavy equipment inventor and manufacturer R.G. LeTourneau arrived at the construction site to see how one of his new earth-moving creations performed during its first real-life application, and was pleased with how well both his new machine and the army of volunteers were operating.
'We've got it whipped'
Operation Coonskin, LeTourneau said, "is a magnificent effort and demonstrates that people, when they band together in a common effort, can achieve wonders."
At 4:30 p.m. on June 28, Anderson, the Operation Coonskin chairman, "jubilantly announced 'we've got it whipped,'" according to a Gazette article.
"We humbly hope that the people of Kanawha County get as much fun from using Coonskin Park as we, the contractors, equipment operators and workers had in building it," Anderson said after the work was completed.

People cool off at the Coonskin Park swimming pool on June 4, 2025.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-MailA ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at the start of the new park's access road, then named Coonskin Trail, followed by a game between the Charleston Reds and the Charleston Gazette junior league teams on the new baseball diamond, and music, dancing and outdoor movies at the new pavilion. The evening concluded with a Gazette-sponsored fireworks display.
More than 25,000 Kanawha Countians turned out to celebrate the park's opening.
"This two-day job represented the expenditure of more than a million dollars of value in labor, machines, materials and superintendence," according to a Gazette editorial published soon after Operation Coonskin had ended. "It was not handicapped in any way by bureaucratic control. It could not possibly have been done so expeditiously through the agency of any department of government. The people did it themselves, under their own direction, and they did it with a display of utmost enthusiasm."
The editorial also observed that development of Coonskin Park "is far from finished. From month to month and year to year there will be extensions and improvements."
In the years that followed, that's just what happened.

High school boys' cross-country runners set out on the course from the starting line in the Charleston Catholic Irish Invitational meet at Coonskin Park on Sept. 11, 2024. Catholic's Will Barton (2514) was the eventual winner.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photoCoonskin Park through the years
Another 200 acres were added to the park. In the early 1970s, under the management of the Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Commission, an Olympic-size pool, a golf course, a clubhouse/banquet room and tennis courts were added to the park.

This is an undated photo of people snow skiing at Coonskin Park.
Gazette-Mail file photoOne innovation that didn't survive the test of time — or climate change — was the Coonskin Park Ski Area, built on a slope adjacent to the driving range, which was served by a 600-foot rope tow and offered night skiing. The ski slope was operated, weather permitting, from the 1970s through the early 1980s.
Coonskin's 2,000-seat Schoenbaum Stadium was built in 2000, and its Field Turf soccer playing surface was added in 2006. The 2016 flood severely damaged the park's original golf course, which was replaced by a new 9-hole par 3 Short Course in 2022. Other relatively recent additions to Coonskin include a skate park, disc golf course, pickleball courts and a kayak-canoe Elk River launch site.

Travis Wong, of Charleston, tosses a disc into the seventh hole at the disc golf course at Coonskin Park on June 1, 2025.
CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE | Gazette-MailHow important to Coonskin's future was the two-day volunteer construction project that took place 75 years ago?
"Without Operation Coonskin, there wouldn't be a Coonskin Park today," Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Hutchinson said.
"Coonskin Park has stood the test of time — not just as a place for recreation, but as a cornerstone of life in Kanawha County," Kanawha County Commissioner Lance Wheeler said. "For 75 years, it has welcomed families, athletes and nature lovers alike. As we celebrate this milestone, we're not only looking back with pride — we're looking ahead with a renewed commitment to making sure Coonskin continues to thrive for generations to come."