Blue Ridge Life
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn Jim Crow Virginia, the power of a single piece of paper could decide your future—or erase your past. In 1924, the Commonwwealth of Virginia passed a law that tried to nail down something as messy and human as race using bureaucratic language and the force of law. One drop of the wrong blood, and you weren’t white anymore. Just […]
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe Crooked Road isn’t just a mountain ramble. It’s a sound—a fiddle tune rolling through the hills, a banjo ringing against the Blue Ridge backdrop. It’s the laughter of dancers at a Friday night jamboree, the reverent silence after a ballad, the echo of generations who’ve carried these songs across porches, church pews, and festival stages. Music isn’t just played […]
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe Road That Changed America Imagine standing at the edge of civilization, your worldly possessions packed onto a horse, your family by your side. The road ahead is no more than a rough footpath, cutting through dense forest and winding toward a mountain pass. You’ve heard the stories—of fertile land beyond the mountains, danger lurking in the woods, and families […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn the hills and hollers of Old Appalachia, long before hospitals dotted the landscape, there were the granny women. They were the healers, midwives, and wisdom-keepers of mountain communities, blending herbal medicine, faith, and folklore to treat everything from fevers to broken bones. Their remedies, whispered prayers, and practical knowledge formed the backbone of Appalachian folk medicine. This art has […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesLife on the early frontier often hinged on one thing: salt. It preserved food, kept animals and humans healthy, and was used as trade currency. Great battles were fought over it. Men died mining it. The salt trade on the Holston River wasn’t just a business; frontier economies rose and fell with the availability of salt. Before railroads cut through […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn the last days of the Civil War, as Richmond burned and the Confederacy fell apart, a desperate group rolled out of town. They carried something more valuable than weapons—they carried their stash of Confederate gold. This fortune, meant to keep the Confederacy alive, made its way south to Danville, Virginia. And then? It vanished. For over a century, treasure […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe Abduction On the Western Frontier of Virginia in 1776, life was a delicate balance between survival and danger. Boonesborough, in Kentucky County, VA, had been settled just a year earlier. A tenuous treaty between a handful of tribal leaders and the British government allowed the settlement. But many native warriors didn’t give a hoot about the White Man’s politics—they […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesDriving north on Interstate 77 near Wytheville, VA, just before where the highway crosses the New River, stands a tower made from field stone: The Jackson Ferry Shot Tower. For more than 30 years, until 1839, the Tower manufactured lead shot. It played a key role in transforming raw lead into musket shot, moving it through a carefully designed production […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn the quiet town of Helvetia, West Virginia, the final days before Lent don’t pass unnoticed. They are celebrated with Helvetia Fasnacht, bringing a parade of masked revelers and the steady thumping of old-world music to the town’s streets and parks. Picture it: masked figures dancing through the streets, firepits crackling, and the spirit of a Swiss tradition burning bright. […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesAnother Valentine’s Day looms ahead. Some young ladies will be expecting gifts; some young men will hustle at the last minute to grab flowers or candy or secure a coveted dinner reservation. Others, perhaps, will be carefully crafting the perfect message for an online dating profile or swiping through apps, searching for a spark of connection. Though the settings and […]
