Jumonville Cross Stock Photo

Since 1950 a steel cross 60 feet high has stood on a concrete base six feet tall on Dunbar’s Knob, which itself is 2,480 feet above sea level. On a clear day the mountaintop boasts a view of three states and seven counties with sights up to 50 miles away. The story behind the massive cross is an inspiring one, too. The money to build it was collected in hundreds of Methodist Churches before World War II; then the wartime steel shortage forced postponement of the project. When it was taken up again, after the war, its fabrication and erection posed many problems. A foundation consisting of 183 tons of concrete had to be constructed. Then, the main shaft of the cross, weighing approximately 47,000 pounds, had to be hauled to the mountaintop site, after cutting a road up the back side of the mountain. The cross arms, projecting 12 feet on each side of the main shaft, were brought in separately and the entire structure was securely welded together. The completed structure will withstand winds of 100 miles an hour and the torsion that might be developed by a whirlwind. The surface is steel plate, almost half an inch thick, rolled in US Steel plants in the district. It was originally coated with a substance called Gilsonite with white mica embedded in it.