For more information on Holly River State Park, contact the park at (304) 493-6353 or www.hollyriver.com. The park offers 10 cabins and 88 campsites with electric hookups. The cabins and campsites are open through the last weekend of November. The Elk River WMA proffers 236 tent/trailer sites and 12 primitive ones.

CHIEF CORNSTALK WMA
At 11,772 acres, Chief Cornstalk WMA is not as big as the other members of our quintet. However, this WMA, located in Mason County (District V), harbors a good number of whitetails. Potential visiting bowhunters should note that very little open land exists on this public ground, as some 85 percent of it consists of hardwood forests. Cornstalk also contains basically only two types of habitat: moderately steep slopes and rolling hill terrain.

From 2002 through 2007, the bow harvests were 45, 15, 29, 35, 51 and 59, respectively, making the 2007 kill the highest this past decade. Keep in mind that Mason County annually features an excellent bow harvest in the kill per square mile of habitat department. The outer rim of Chief Cornstalk WMA, where it borders private land, is often an excellent place to position a portable.

A few small towns nearby offer some lodging, but the best bet for archers might be to stay on-site. Fifteen primitive campsites are available on the WMA. For more information on Chief Cornstalk, or on any of the public lands in the state, consult the following Web site: www.wvdnr.gov.

STONEWALL JACKSON LAKE WMA
One of the best public-land places to bowhunt in District III, or in the state as a whole for that matter, is the 18,289-acre Stonewall Jackson Lake WMA in Lewis County. Like Bluestone Lake WMA, the peak year recently for bowhunters was 2002 when 96 whitetails were checked in. Between 2003 and 2007, the harvests were 57, 63, 64, 41 and 40, respectively, in this central West Virginia public land.

Sam England, superintendent for Stonewall Jackson Lake Resort State Park, said that the WMA should be a prime destination this autumn.

"The WMA obviously has a very good deer population and the 40 deer that bowhunters killed on the WMA last year does not speak to how good the hunting can be," England said. "In fact, we are having a deer reduction hunt this November on the state park land, which adjoins the WMA, before the firearms season. Both archery and gun hunting will be available.

"We simply have too many deer on the state park property, and many of those deer travel back and forth between the park and WMA. The deer have done damage to native flora and simply have to be reduced in number. We could certainly stand to have more bowhunters hunting on the WMA."

The superintendent informed that some of the areas that hunters will be assigned to will be labeled as "stationary sites," meaning that DNR personnel will direct hunters to those spots and that they cannot leave them. At other locations, those sites are labeled "open range," and hunters will be allowed to still-hunt.