By Gary Lee Stuber
Just a little inside the door at Tudor’s Biscuit World in Clay, hanging on the wall, is a 2000 poster of the Clay County football team that went 10-0. And there in the photo third from the left in the top row is right guard and center, as well as team captain, Heath Cliver. Hometown football hero turned DNR officer.
It took him a long time to realize it, but the chips are finally falling in place. “I went to Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky where I played Center all four years. I got a degree in Recreation Management with an emphasis on park placement and design.” So it wasn’t really coincidental when one night as an insurance salesman he stumbled upon a job listing on Indeed that was looking for someone for Clay County, West Virginia with a recreational degree to help them design, manage, and operate a new state park there.
“They thought they were going to have to find a residence in the county, as well as build a trail office, museum and gift shop. And they said, ‘Hey, here is a local man who has everything we are looking for, and he already has a home in Clay County.’”
Heath’s mother was a Clay County girl, Darlene Brown, who met her husband Mike Cliver while they were in Glenville State College. Mike was from New Jersey but moved to Monroe County in West Virginia. West Virginia women have a way of pulling men into the state after marriage.
“They met in college. They started out in Lewisburg and moved to Dixie and then to Indore. I have been a Clay County native since 6th grade.” Heath says. “My mother taught school at Clay Elementary but would retire from H.E. White.”
He has a sister, Miriam Cliver, who used to run the flower shop in downtown Clay, but she moved to Missouri and is presently living in Miami, Florida. She manages a hotel in Miami.
“I was starting right tackle beginning in my sophomore year and nose guard. I started wrestling back in my tenth grade year, and in my junior year I placed 6th in the state and in my senior year I placed 2nd in the state. I had, by that time, only been wrestling three years.”
Clive is divorced and has six kids which he shares custody with their mothers. His first four he has week to week and the last two he shares four days one week and three the next. Jackson is his oldest at 17, Brooke is 14, Tucker is 12 and Sadie Rae is 11. Then he has Kade who is 7, and Etta Kathleen is the youngest at 4. Outside of work, his children are his life; his home is still in Indore.
“I had been putting in applications for years with the state park system. It took me 15 years to use my degree. I graduated in 2005 and two years ago I got hired into to do this job. I love being outdoors and I love the work. I tell people all the time I operate a state park that is 13 feet wide by fifty miles long.”
The job is never done. Particularly after storms, floods or freezes. Culvert cleaning, tree and rock removal, slips and rock falls all require constant attention. They have a mini excavator he estimates runs four days a week. And then there is mowing. Once the growing season begins, mowing is a constant thing right up through the end of summer.
“The entire length of the park is all different. Very few sections are alike. There are straight sections, curves, blind curves, rock walls, and always with the river on one side.”
Heath walks out onto a reconstructed bridge over Big Buffalo Creek at Dundon as he talks, “This bridge gets covered in Kudzu and we have to cut it back,” He says, “or it will completely cover the bridge, shading it, making it like a tunnel.” There are still dried pieces of vine in the overarches from a season ago. “We teamed up with WVU and have counters.” He points to an almost invisible lens embedded in a steel beam of the bridge. “This is a counter, as someone walks by it adds that person to a data bank somewhere, keeping track of how many people pass in front of it.” He points out a spot nearby there at the conflux of the Elk River and Buffalo Creek on the bank where the old red house used to stand. “There is where they are going to build the State Park Office, designed to look like an old depot. It will be a gift shop and an elk railroad museum as well.” It is a beautiful spot on the bank which will also allow handicapped access to the river. It should be easily seen from the new bridge over the Elk River to Dundon, Widen and points beyond. Construction could begin this June or July.
He spoke about some of the sights on the trail. “There are five waterfalls, or freshettes, between Dundon and Duck. There are does and baby deer all over the trail. There have been some bear sighted as well, along with foxes, raccoons, and about any wildlife you can imagine. There are some of the old creosote poles up that have the old glass insulators. We still have a few wooden culverts that are still in the ground, they are made with cypress so they don’t rot, but some get crushed. At mile marker 53 there is a concrete tunnel that the Italians built in 1951. The CCC had them build a number of them that lets the water come through under the railway. There is a plaque that identifies the year.” He laughs when he says, “When you look on a West Virginia state map and it says state park and there is a big patch there. Well, my park looks more like a spaghetti noodle on the map.”
“This is the flattest trail in West Virginia.” He offers. “Between here and Gassaway is a .5% grade. When they came out of Widen they could haul 90 cars of coal with five steam engines. In Gassaway there were six sets of tracks because when they got to Gassaway, they had to break it up into smaller number of cars, park them on the tracks. From Gassaway to Exchange they could only pull 30 cars with five steam engines because the grade was better than 1.5% grade. So they would only take thirty cars at a time, and come back two more times. So that is one of the things we can say. Our trail is flat.”
“Fishing is better on the railroad side of the Elk River. This side and the other side are two different beasts. I mean you can go down along this trail and just look down and see the fish in the various holes they sit in.” He says, “I have been here two years and we are just now getting on the WV Tourism site. If there is one thing about this state park, it is you have a lot of park that has limited access. For as much as twelve miles at a time, you can hear activity on the other side of the river but you are either going up over a rock cliff or swimming across the river to get there.”
He has put up five bathrooms along the trail, and is trying to work with adjoining landowners to see if he can get more river access points.
He is a southern Elk River guy. The Elk River halves the county and anyone south of the river knows, what life is like on this southern side. “My kids are involved in 4-H so I’m involved with 4-H.” He says, “My daughter plays football for Clay Middle School. My 14-year-old daughter Brooke is the starting right tackle for the middle school. She is six foot tall in the eight grade and an imposing figure.” He brags. She is indeed a chip off the old block as Heath is still an imposing figure himself. “All my kids are big kids, except for the youngest. She is still a tiny thing, and she is spoiled. She has five siblings that won’t let her cry.” Spoken like a father who knows his children well.
“I have been accused a number of times of calling this park mine. Hey, I’m a Clay County boy, this is my home, this is my park. Besides, none of this ever feels like work. I get to come out every day and play.” If everyone took this attitude, West Virginia would truly be ‘almost heaven.’
