by Bob Knapp
To indulge his wife and family, Tom himself designed a new home of eighty-six-hundred square feet and built it on the site of their old home.
Donovan Kirkpatrick, as his final term as Governor of West Virginia drew to a close, put in a bid for nomination as President of the United States. In a highly publicized media event, he, as Fowlkes’ closest living blood-relative, magnanimously donated the Jug Resort and its surrounding three acres to the local churches; plus, he gave the remaining eighty-eight beautiful acres of Jug property to Madison County.
In response, the churches promptly redesigned the resort's auditorium as a sanctuary, erected a 30-foot tall cross on the top of the building—making the cross visible from miles away—and removed the Devil's Palm elevator. They promoted the resort as a center for youth camps and spiritual retreats. Uncle Andy's dream of a church on the top of the bluff had come to fruition.
Madison County set up its Jug property as an outdoor recreational center. With some trepidation because of the financial and political risk involved, the County Council reopened the old oil well. The move turned out to be a very profitable gamble. Because of revenue from the well, and with considerable foresight, the Council abolished local property, business and income taxes. Madison County, the smallest county in the state, became one of the wealthiest and fastest growing counties in the United States.
After news of the bloody firefight at the Devil's Palm became public, it attracted many curious visitors. Before couples returned to the famous rock to neck, years of scrubbing by sun, wind and rain, and healing by time, were necessary.
The Christmas Eve of the Jug Resort's grand opening had marked the end of the drought. The snowfall that evening reached 23 inches in Middlebourne and 27 inches in Madison City. By spring, water once more filled the Devil's Basin. Nobody in Madison County can say exactly how the Devil's Spigot is turned on and off, but Middle Island Creek again surges against the Devil's Palm.
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