Barclayville

Barclayville, the capital and most populous settlement in Grand Kru County is located in southeastern Liberia about 10 miles inland from Picinicess. The Barclayville township of several thousand people straddles the banks of the Na River. Roads from Kanweaken to the northwest, Pleebo to the southeast, and to Picinicess and Grand Cess to the southeast, all intersect at Barclayville. In March 2006 the United Nations reported completion of the Na River bridge at Barclayville, connecting the Kanweaken and Pleebo roads for the first time.

The modern jurisdiction of Barclayville was created by President Barclay in response to the last Kru Wars in the 1930s. As part of the effort to exert central government authority and diminish inter-tribal conflicts that resulted in devastation, four separate villages were combined into one township. Until the creation of Barclayville, the constituent villages of Seetor and Kayken, which are from rival chiefdoms, were in periodic conflict. The villages of Seetor, Kayeken and Wakpeken and their "suburbs" are on the northwest side of the Na river while Topor is on the opposite bank across from Wakpekan. Despite the town's large size, most structures are traditional mud and stick homes and (as of mid 1980) few have running water or electricity. Kplio (a dialect of Grebo) is the primary language of all Barclayvillians but English is the official language of instruction.