Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains just a little southwest of Roanoke is the town of Ferrum, VA. Ferrum is the home of Ferrum College, a 4-year liberal arts residence college sponsored by the United Methodist Church. Ferrum is also home to the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum. The Blue Ridge Institute & Museum was created [...]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHLnmLKtsZY Every Labor Day, the population of the town of Hillsville, VA grows from 2700 to nearly 500,000 people. The entire town pitches in to accommodate the crowd. Residential yards are turned into parking lots ($5/day). Route 58 through the center of town is lined with food vendors for over a mile on both sides [...]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU31AS69sJI&feature=related In England, the plants are known as ramson; in France they are ail sauvage. Native Americans in the Great Lakes area called the plants Chicagou, for which the city of Chicago is named. Elsewhere in the world they are known as wild leeks, wild garlic and spring onions. In the Blue Ridge Mountains and [...]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUN72BRugio&feature=related In ancient times, it was said that “all roads led to Rome”. Today, the same might be said of Damascus, VA. Damascus is the Blue Ridge Mountain town where seven recreational trails converge: the Appalachian Trail, the Virginia Creeper Trail, the Trans-America National Bicycle Trail, the Iron Mountain Trail, the Daniel Boone Heritage Trail, [...]
It started with a kiss and ended with a courtroom shootout. Five people died in the shootout 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 offending kiss simply lit the fuse on a pre-existing political powder-keg. [...]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wIzbiihgE4 During the first great American immigration wave from 1740-1750 the Irish and Scots, finding that land in the Northern Colonies was expensive, travelled south along the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. Unlike the Germans who travelled the same route, the Scots-Irish tended to [...]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXteoFCU6r4 Porta-Potty, Johnny-on-the-Spot, Outhouse, Portable toilet. Whatever you call them, they all have one thing in common: once you set them up, they stay put. They don’t go anywhere. Unless, of course, you are in Independence, VA the second Sunday in October; then you will see outhouses running down main street. The running outhouses are [...]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsY22tec7Gk Wayne Henderson was a mild-mannered postman in the mountains surrounding Rugby, VA (pop 7) for most of his career. But evenings and weekends, he became the Superman of bluegrass guitar picking and the guitar maker to superstars. He has built guitars for Doc Watson, Eric Clapton and others, and several of his guitars are [...]
They call it that old mountain dew And them that refuse it are few You may go ’round the bend But you’ll come back again For that good old mountain dew The folks of the Blue Ridge Mountains take their moonshine seriously. Moonshine liquor was always a part of the colonial Virginia culture: just 13 [...]
Kudzu Man is on the move. A Kudzu vine can grow a foot a day, sixty feet in a season. Residents of Georgia have been warned to close their windows at night to keep the dastardly weed out of their houses. Left uncontrolled, Kudzu will grow over any fixed object, including cars, houses, equipment, and [...]
