(Photo by Brett Dunlap) Mike Naylor of the Friends of Mountwood Park shows Wood County Administrator Marty Seufer the diorama of the oil boom town of Volcano that was once in the area that now encompasses Mountwood Park. The diorama is on display at the park’s Volcano Museum, which details the area’s oil and gas history.

VOLCANO — Wood County officials visited Mountwood Park Monday to get a sense of its history and its future.

Commissioners Blair Couch and Bob Tebay, Administrator Marty Seufer and Sheriff Rick Woodyard toured the newly renovated Volcano Museum and heard about future plans for the park.

County Parks Director Jeremy Cross led the tour with a stop at the museum, showing off recent renovations and newly added exhibits detailing the former oil boom town that was once in the area now taken up by the park. Volcano was home to 2,300 people before the town burned down in August 1879.

The museum was founded in 2012 and has been an important resource in detailing the history of the town, park officials said. Exhibits include photos, equipment, gas engine models and more. The new addition has doubled the square footage of the museum. There is also a Pattin Brothers hit-and-miss engine on display in a new building to show people how such devices operated, as well as an oil derrick set up behind the museum as part of a growing history exhibit.

“It is wonderful,” Tebay said. “There is so much history out here.”

(Photo by Brett Dunlap) Mountwood Park Maintenance Supervisor Bill Edwards operates a Pattin Brothers hit-and-miss engine on display in a new building near the Volcano Museum at Mountwood Park on Monday during a visit by county officials to the park.

The museum and its exhibits will be highlighted during the upcoming Volcano Days Festival at Mountwood Park Sept. 26-28, Cross said.

“It is our favorite and busiest weekend during the year,” he said.

Cross said he also wants to find a way to get schools to tour the museum as part of courses highlighting West Virginia history.

“I really want them to come out and make this part of their regular history field trips,” he said. “This is part of local history.”

Eventually, Cross said they have plans to build a complete system near the museum with engine, eccentric gears and rod/cable lines to working pumping jacks at well heads.

(Photo by Brett Dunlap) Wood County Commissioners Blair Couch and Robert Tebay, Sheriff Rick Woodyard, Administrator Marty Seufer and Parks Director Jeremy Cross tour the former horse riding camp area at Mountwood Park on Monday. The park is planning to renovate the site with campsites, RV parking and more.

“It is like the endless cable system but with rods instead of cables and pulleys,” Cross said. Work is expected to begin on this after Volcano Days is over. Cross said they hope to have it in place in time for Volcano Days 2026.

“The more we do, the more people we have,” Cross said, adding six to eight years ago the history was not as highlighted. Now they have visitors who will spend an hour or so at the museum.

One of the museum’s new exhibits is a 4-by-9-foot detailed diorama of the town of Volcano based on historical records and photographs. Funds for the diorama came from a donation from Antero Resources.

Officials said a farmers market that is set up at the park Saturdays in the fall has brought more people to the museum.

“We have had over 700 visitors since May 1,” said Mike Naylor of the Friends of Mountwood Park organization. The museum recently commemorated its new Naylor Room, named for Mike and his wife Carolyn and their work preserving history at the park.

The tour went to the former horse riding camp near the White Oak Village facility where officials are planning to build an updated camping area. Couch said he believes the camping area will have spaces available for RVs, a renovated shower house, platform tents and more. An early estimate has around 15 camping spots, two to three cabins and more, but what is actually built will depend on what the engineering work says can be done and available funding.

There are plans for a possible observation deck tower in the area which could also be used to put up emergency communications systems to replace an aging tower in the area, Couch said adding additional trail work could be done.

“This will be the biggest thing to happen at the park since it was built,” Cross said.

The park has already received a $2.6 million American Mine Reclamation Grant to deal with an old family coal mine in the park, officials said. The old coal mine is still accessible and officials want to be able to secure it as a safety measure.

The Mountwood Park board had hired Thrasher Engineering, which is doing survey work. They will be presenting their designs to the board for approval in the near future.