History
Reading Time: 3 minutesAlong a freeway passage where traffic travels north on I-81 while simultaneously going south on I-77 lies the exit for Ft. Chiswell, VA. One might expect to find some semblance of a colonial fort there, considering that Virginia is a state rich in historical sites. But there isn’t one. Instead, this crossroads hides its frontier past under a cloak of […]
Reading Time: 3 minutesPicture the towering forests of old-growth Appalachia, sunlight dappling through a canopy of ancient trees. Imagine a different kind of home nestled among these giants. Forget the familiar image of the log cabin. Here, amidst the roots and fallen leaves, rise simple dwellings built not from felled trees but from the massive stumps they left behind. These were the Appalachian […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe tale of the Saluda River Petrified Man is steeped in the superstitions and faux-science of the late 19th century. This extraordinary story emerges from South Carolina, where an alleged petrified body was discovered and displayed. The Saluda River forms in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It flows southward into southwestern South Carolina (“Upstate”), passing through Saluda, NC, […]
Reading Time: 3 minutesAl Capone, the infamous American gangster of the 1920s, is widely known for his involvement in Chicago’s organized crime and bootlegging during Prohibition. What’s rarely discussed is that his liquor distribution network spread far beyond his base in Chicago: It went well into the mountains of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and Georgia. South of Chicago, his criminal activities centered in Johnson […]
Reading Time: 3 minutesYou stand on the creaking deck of the paddlewheel riverboat, a relic of a bygone era. The wheel churns the water beneath you, its rhythmic thump echoing through your chest. The bell clangs as you round an island, and calliope music erupts from the steam whistles. You marvel at the sight of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and wonder how […]
Reading Time: 2 minutesStompin’ 76 was a landmark festival that, for one long weekend in 1976, made Bluegrass the center of the musical universe. Like New York’s iconic Woodstock festival in 1969, the event is legendary. Over 100,000 attended the event. Most attendees parked miles away—some on Interstate 77, more than eleven miles away—and walked up country roads to the festival near Galax, […]
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Euro-centric history I learned in school in the 1960s was woefully inadequate. I suppose that’s the best they could do. After all, the world is a big place with lots going on. There was only enough time to cover the Big Picture. That’s why I was shocked to learn, only a few years ago, of Spanish Conquistadors in the […]
Reading Time: 6 minutesBackground: The Saltville Muck Dam broke around eight o’clock on Christmas Eve,1924. The dam held back a pond filled with 27 years of chemical waste released by the Mathieson Alkali Works. When the dam broke, a 100-foot-high wall of toxic sludge cascaded down the Holston River, destroying homes and farms, killing 19 people, and rendering the river lifeless for decades. […]
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt started with a kiss and ended with a courtroom shootout. Five people died, and seven were wounded. A year and two weeks later, Floyd Allen and his son Claude were executed in Virginia’s electric chair for the courthouse murders. The kiss lit the fuse on a pre-existing political powder keg. Floyd’s nephew Wesley Edwards, was at a corn shucking […]
