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Stewart's TavernStewart's Tavern · Photo: Generic1139 · CC BY-SA 3.0
C+Outdoors
Outdoors in Fort Ashby

Few parks or trails are on the map in Fort Ashby

31 acres are parks and preserves, 24 per 1,000 residents. 44% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 0.6 miles of mapped trail cross Fort Ashby, 0.2 per square mile of land.

Ahead of 36% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
1%
12 acres · of 3.3 sq mi of land
Trails
0.6 mi
0.2 per sq mi of land
Park land
31 ac
24 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
44%
of residents within ½ mile
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Fort Ashby have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Fort Ashby is ahead of 36% of U.S. towns. Park acres per resident hold the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.

C+
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Fort Ashby’s overall grade.
Conserved land1% of the land · typical WV town 2% · U.S. 4%C−Trails0.2 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (1 mi) · WV 0.3 · U.S. 0.4C+Park land24 acres of park per 1,000 residents (31 acres) · WV 10 · U.S. 13B+Parks close to home44% of residents within a half mile of a park · WV 71% · U.S. 72%C+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 36%
LessMore

Few West Virginia towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Fort Ashby’s 1% is ahead of 26% of West Virginia towns, while its trails per square mile lead 30% of them.

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B−. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.

PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →

The map

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.

12
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk

Pick a walk

Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Mineral County Fairgrounds

Park
27 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto the parking lot

Dam Site #21

Managed by Mineral County Parks and Recreation
3 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Who protects it

12 conserved acres

1% of Fort Ashby’s land. Who manages Fort Ashby’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

County9 ac
Other or Unknown Local Government6 ac
USDA easements (NRCS)3 ac
Not recorded9 ac
Local Park · 12 acAgricultural Easement · 8 acLocal Recreation Area · 6 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 3 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Fort Ashby Baseball Field
Local Recreation Area
Other or Unknown Local Government11Open
Fort Ashby Dam
Local Park
Not recorded3Open
Dam Site #21
Local Park
County3Open
Biking & sports

0.0 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

Courts & fields
2Baseball
1Football

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

History along the way

1 place on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →
Fort AshbyBuilding · listed 1970
About it
When to get out

April is the best month for walking in Fort Ashby

NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)9.710.711.813.214.314.914.713.712.411.19.99.4
High (°F)414554677684888780685645
Rain (in)2.42.23.23.34.04.03.63.23.52.82.42.7

February is the driest month (2.2 in) and July the warmest (highs of 88 °F). 4.0 inches fall in June, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 88 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Fort Ashby →

Questions about parks and trails in Fort Ashby

How much of Fort Ashby is conserved land?

1% of its land, against a typical 2% for a West Virginia town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Fort Ashby’s trails?

Mineral County Fairgrounds and Dam Site #21 don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Is there public land near Fort Ashby?

3,198 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Fort Ashby or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 31 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Fort Ashby have?

Ahead of 36% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

Trail talk

Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Fort Ashby neighbors.

Town Square →
Share a tip
Sources

Where this page comes from

Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →