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Gary Driggs is an irrepressible futurist. He put money on the West Virginia he could see in 2004—a West Virginia that invites and sustains vigorous innovators. He is preparing to create his vision of the perfect habitat for these innovators in the community called the New River Gorge Preserve.

Driggs’s 1,200-acre property stretches for six miles along the southwestern rim of the New River Gorge in Fayette County, from the world-famous steel arch span across the New River on U.S. 19 to almost a mile beyond the overlook at Hawks Nest State Park. The land offers prized postcard views of the New River, the bridge and several waterfalls on the property. From its access road off WV Route 16, the development is less than a five-minute drive to downtown Fayetteville.

Driggs, an Arizona native, is a rock climber and old-school mountaineer who has originated climbs on the world’s major mountains. He is well-known in the climbing world as protector and historian of Camelback Mountain. A preservationist, he served as president of the Arizona Historical Foundation. He zips along his New River land in well-worn hiking boots and cargo pants, pointing out plants by name. “This is one of the world’s most diverse botanical habitats,” he says. “It’s a giant garden.”

To minimize disturbance of the forest on his parcel of land, he used an existing power line cut on a ridge top for an access road. Another old power line cut that once provided service to a shaft mine deep in the gorge now provides one of the best gorge views. His most recent project is a series of native stone terraces on the cut that will become Gorge View Park. He has hired Troy Scott Parker, a nationally recognized authority on trail building, to design an extensive network of natural surface hiking paths that will connect homeowners’ properties with what Driggs calls pocket parks, gorge views and the gorge’s mountainside forest. The trails will wind around the property and carry the hiker past waterfalls, cascading streams and remnants of past gorge civilizations.

Driggs is working on conservation plans for the 700-acre portion of the Preserve comprising the sides of the gorge where no houses will be built. He smiles at the thought that he might be described as a tree hugger. He holds a doctorate in business from Indiana University, taught real estate classes there and has been involved in land development for nearly 50 years. “I’ve been thinking most of my life about urban development,” he says. “What is good enough, big enough, to make people say, ‘Wow, that’s where I want to go’?” He has studied the assets of Fayette County and his riverside land, and he is jubilant that he captured the gorge rim parcel before another developer recognized its potential.

His development experience gives him confidence in the New River Gorge project and other real estate investments he has made in Fayette County. He firmly believes that many buyers will have family or business ties to West Virginia and will already have an appreciation for its beauty and culture. He says they will choose the community for the same reason outdoor enthusiasts have come: for the quality of life. “These people will have as much stake in preserving the region as anyone here now,” he says.

Driggs is not the first businessperson to come under the spell of the New River Gorge. Whitewater entrepreneurs, beginning in 1968 with Pennsylvania native Jon Dragan, saw the region’s potential and proceeded to build the core of a multi-million-dollar outdoor recreation industry that includes rafting and kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking and bass and trout fishing. The region is now one of three major rafting centers in the United States.

Millions travel along U.S. 19 from Canada to Florida, many making a special trip just to drive the near-mile across the gorge on the New River Gorge Bridge. More than 200,000 guests stop each year at the New River Gorge National River Visitors’ Center and usually take the short walk to the bridge overlook. The Preserve property lies across the river, diagonally west from the official public bridge overlook.

Driggs’s animation grows when he talks about creating a welcoming community in West Virginia for a new world of telecommuters. “The work-at-home movement is big and will get much bigger,” he says. “I think it’s the most exciting development opportunity in West Virginia. Because of the Internet, people can live wherever they want and telecommute to work. Basically,” he says, “all you need is a high speed Internet connection and easy access to an airport.”

He glows when he describes the virtues of Charleston’s Yeager Airport, about an hour and 15 minutes northwest of Fayetteville, and the smaller Raleigh County Memorial Airport, approximately 45 minutes southeast from Fayetteville.

“Yeager Airport is a jewel,” he says. “It’s a huge asset, perhaps an under-appreciated asset. It makes our place in Southern West Virginia easily accessible to the whole world. We’re one flight from gateway cities. You can land any kind of private plane in Beckley or Charleston. When you think about it, is this a cool place to live or what?” He emphatically answers his own question. “It’s definitely a cool place.”

He takes the long view of American development, citing the 19th century technological and social patterns that gave rise to West Virginia’s small towns. As 20th century economies ebb, Driggs has no time for nostalgia. Instead, at 72, he leaps like the veteran rock climber he is for a hold on 21st century urbanism, blazing a trail to the New River Gorge Preserve for migrants with a penchant for all that is “Wild and Wonderful.”

For more information about The New River Gorge Preserve, visit www.nrgpreserve.com, or call 304.574.1802. To read more about Fayetteville, visit www.findyourENTRANCE.com.