| The Jug Wildlife Management Area | |
|---|---|
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)[1] | |
  Location of The Jug Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia | |
| Location | Tyler, West Virginia, United States |
| Coordinates | 39°28′05″N80°52′31″W / 39.46806°N 80.87528°W /39.46806; -80.87528 |
| Area | 2,848 acres (11.53 km2)[2] |
| Elevation | 900 ft (270 m) |
| Website | WVDNR District 6 Wildlife Management Areas |
The Jug — formerly known as theJug Handle — is a jug-shapedisland formed by a horseshoe bend onMiddle Island Creek nearMiddlebourne inTyler County,West Virginia, USA. It is maintained by the state of West Virginia asThe Jug Wildlife Management Area (2,848 acres, including the Jug and much land south of it).
Middle Island Creek's most extreme meander forms apeninsula known as "the Jug," located upstream of Middlebourne. The creek rounds a 3.3 mile (5.3 km) bend[3] only to return to within 100 feet (30 m) of itself. Sometime prior to 1800, an early white settler named George Gregg had araceway (mill race) carved across the narrow point of the peninsula and harnessed the resultinghydropower of the stream's 13-foot (4 m) fall for agristmill andsawmill at the site. These mills were destroyed by a flood in 1852; four more mills were subsequently built and respectively washed away by flooding in the later 19th century. Flooding had the effect of widening the raceway across the peninsula such that it became the main channel of the stream, inhibiting the flow of water through the longer loop and transforming the peninsula into an island. In 1947 the West Virginia Conservation Commission constructed alow water bridge which substantially dammed the cut-through and restored a steady flow to the bend of the creek.[4] The low water bridge is known to be frequently impassable due to flooding. The land encircled by the creek's loop is operated as aWildlife Management Area by the state of West Virginia.[5]
