An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. From the pull-off near Rocky Knob, Rock Castle Gorge lies open below the Blue Ridge Parkway. Ridges step down into the valley where families once farmed and built their homes. Most visitors see only the view, not the community that once filled the hollow. When the Blue…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The View That Cost Everything Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway on a quiet weekday morning, and it’s easy to believe it has always been this way: peaceful and polished. Each curve feels natural, as if the road simply followed the shape the mountains already offered. Beauty like…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. Mount Airy NC: A Town That Feels Like Mayberry The bronze statue outside the Andy Griffith Playhouse catches the last light of day. Sheriff Andy Taylor holds Opie’s hand, fishing poles slung over their shoulders, just as they did in the opening credits of The Andy Griffith…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series The drive between Mount Airy, North Carolina, and Hillsville, Virginia, takes about twenty minutes today. Route 52 winds up and over Fancy Gap Mountain, a two-lane road that climbs up to three thousand feet before landing in Carroll County. The pavement is smooth, the grades are…
An installment in our Folklore & Legends series A mist settles along a mountain road. The night is still until the sound of heavy paws keeps pace beside you. Step quicker, and the rhythm follows. Glance back, and a shadow slips into the trees. In the Appalachians, they call it the black dog legend; a…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series Across the Atlantic The ship pitched hard in the swells of the North Atlantic. Below deck, young Johann Dahle gripped the rough wood of his bunk and tried to steady his thoughts. He was twenty years old, a soldier-for-hire from Hesse, one of the small German…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The stone arch cuts a clean curve into the mountain, framing the tunnel. At the entrance to the Blue Ridge Tunnel, faint drips and echoes are heard. The wind carries the smell of damp rock. Step forward, and the daylight behind you starts to shrink, the cool…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series In 1938, the Blue Ridge Mountains still held pockets of people far from any public library. Roads were rough, mail was slow, and a borrowed book might pass through several hands before finding its way back to a shelf. Into this gap came the Packhorse Librarians:…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. In Meadows of Dan, Virginia, the Blue Ridge Parkway passes a weathered frame building that has stood since 1892. Travelers know it as the Mayberry Trading Post. The name catches the eye because it recalls Andy Griffith’s television Mayberry, but this place is real. Its story is…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series A baby born blue was nothing new on Troublesome Creek. Neighbors had seen it before. The midwife knew the color would fade in a few days for some, but not for others. For certain families in this corner of eastern Kentucky, blue skin wasn’t a sign…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. Before there was a workshop, there was a pocketknife. And before there was a years-long waitlist, there was a teenage boy on a porch in Grayson County, Virginia, scraping curls of wood off a slab of spruce. Wayne Henderson didn’t have a band saw or a luthier’s bench,…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series You might not recognize the Mennonite family that lives a few blocks over. The clothes are modest, sure, but not old-fashioned. The car’s parked in the driveway. The kids play outside after supper. Like other Mennonites in Appalachia, their lifestyle isn’t what sets them apart. Lifestyle…