Motorists who drive across Alleghany County on I-64 will pass two clusters of crosses, each cluster displaying two 20’ high crosses flanking a 25’ tall cross.
A trio of crosses is in plain view on the hill above the Jackson River as I-64 passes LewisGale Hospital Alleghany, and the other cluster is located on the opposite side of I-64 near the Exit 27 off-ramp that leads to U.S. Route 220 and U.S. Route 60 in Clifton Dale Park, just east of Clifton Forge.
Those travelers passing the clusters of crosses may wonder who put them there and why.
It all began in 1984 after Rev. Bernard Coffindaffer, who was born in Craigsville, W. Va. in 1935, became a Christian at 42 and followed his calling to become a minister. He served in seven churches in Pocahontas Co., W. Va., and at 3:00 a.m. one night, he told his wife that God had directed him to erect roadside crosses.
Coffindaffer, an educated man who graduated from high school at 14 and earned his bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Charleston, served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps led him on tours of duty in Iwo Jima, Nagasaki and the Philippines.
Upon his return to the states, he worked in the oil business and founded a coal cleaning business that brought financial success.
Remaining true to his calling, he sold his business for a reported $3 million and began his mission of erecting clusters of crosses by selecting a site beside I-79 in Flatwoods, W.Va. as his first endeavor. There he erected two blue crosses flanking a taller gold cross.
He maintained that the gold symbolizes royalty and the blue represents the Earth. The mission he established to remind travelers that Jesus Christ was crucified and extended His saving grace to one of the two thieves who was being crucified beside Him continues on today 38 years later.
Coffindaffer spent his own money on the project that has now led to clusters of crosses being erected in more than half of the states, from those along the East Coast to Texas.
His goal was to erect clusters beside roadways about 50 miles apart, but those in Alleghany County adjacent to I-64 are only about six miles apart.
Also, his work led to clusters of crosses being erected beside roads in Zambia and the Philippines via the nonprofit organization he founded, Crosses of Mercy-Cast Thy Bread, Inc.
Prior to his death, CBS featured Coffindaffer on its “Sunday Morning” segment, and PBS made a documentary film about him, “Point Man for God.”
After his death, some of the clusters began deteriorating and falling down, but Sara Stevenson Abraham continued Coffindaffer’s work in 1999.
She formed Crosses Across America, Inc., the nonprofit organization that she spearheads in Vicksburg, Miss., and it provides maintenance for the clusters already erected while funding the raising of new clusters.
One of the most photographed clusters has been erected on a small island in the Kanawha River not far from the Gauley Bridge, and those crosses are lighted at night.
