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 […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe wind tore through the brakeman’s jacket as he inched along the top of a freight car, his boots skidding slightly on the frosted steel. Below him, the Blue Ridge Mountains stretched out in waves, shrouded in a foggy mist. The train groaned and shuddered as it hugged a curve, and he gripped the brake wheel tighter, bracing himself against […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe breaker boys’ story is one of stark contrasts: the innocence of childhood stolen by the grit and grime of industrial labor. Imagine being eight years old, bent over a conveyor belt, fingers raw and aching from hours of picking slate out of coal. The air is thick with black dust that coats your lungs and clogs your throat. This […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn the heart of Appalachia’s coal country, where few see daylight, a chilling folk tale persists: Tommyknockers. In the dark, cramped tunnels, miners whisper about these mysterious beings who knock on walls and steal tools. Their knocks sometimes serve as warnings—a signal to flee before disaster strikes. Whether guardian angels or tricksters, Tommyknockers, aka Knockers, are an enduring part of […]
Reading Time: 4 minutesImagine a quilt hanging on a clothesline, fluttering gently in the breeze. To a casual observer, it’s just a piece of fabric, a practical household item airing out in the sun. But for some, it might have been a covert message—a guide to freedom for those enslaved in the 19th century. Could quilts have been used as secret codes in […]
