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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Swappin’ Stories in a Brown’s Cove Parlor
Robert and Ruth Pflug hosted four of their neighbors one afternoon in 1982, to reminisce about earlier days lived at the head of Brown’s Cove, at the foot of Brown’s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains of...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: George Cory and WPED Radio: Crozet’s Own
Apples and peaches may have secured Crozet’s place on the map, but it took the efforts of gentleman George Cory from the Old Dominion’s Tidewater region to put the village on the air. In 1946, Crozet’s...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Vivian, Pete & Lisa: 90 Years (& Counting!) at...
As news goes, October 4, 1933, saw the usual headlines for that day and season: the NY Giants and ever- hopeful Washington Senators were playing in the baseball World Series; the Wets and the Drys were...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: “Enforced Inhospitality”—Joe Wood’s Dilemma
Eight Virginia counties went under the microscope when the establishment of Shenandoah National Park was authorized by Congress in 1926. The lifestyles of many families who resided “in the way” of that...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: News from Camp: The CCCs at White Hall
When a young man is dropped into a brand-new life far from home, he surely wants to tell others all about it. Former Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee Walter M. ‘Mac’ McDowell (1914–2007) shared his...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Glory Days of the Stagecoach: Crossing the Blue...
The Richmond Dispatch editor published a letter from one identified only as “P.” in August 1853. That writer lamented the passing of a much slower era. They wrote, “Passengers leaving Richmond at 6:30...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: The Sounds of a Healthy Mountain Hollow
Once upon a time on some ridge tops not too far away, some outsiders made contact with the citizens in eight counties of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. They said, in so many words (ready?), “We’re...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Railroading Through Crozet
The village of Crozet was birthed in 1876 simply as a stop on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. But in 1849, what would become the site of downtown Crozet was little more than a conspicuous grove of...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Stony Man Camp: High Times “Before the Park”
The story of the lands comprising Shenandoah National Park began long before that playground’s dedication in 1936. Archaeologists probed its aged rocky spine while social scientists labored to reveal...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Greenwood Community Center: A Fitting Tribute
In a not-too-distant past, small villages did the best they were able to take care of themselves and, whether called upon or not, to provide for their neighbors’ needs. If an idea was hatched for a...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Mountain Mission Outposts in Western Albemarle
Disembarking at New York City in 1888, the energetic Englishman Rev. Frederick Neve arrived on American soil with much to share and much still to learn. The Oxford-educated, 32-year-old...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Watching the C&O Trains
George H. Latham (1895–1964) was born into a family of railroaders, both his grandfather and father having been employed in various railroad positions. He reminisced for L&N Magazine (Louisville...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: If it’s August, it Must Be Peaches
“Crozet is, perhaps, the most active small town on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in Virginia,” noted Richmond’s Times-Dispatch in August 1908. “The peach crop here is greater than anticipated.” To a...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Camping with the Goose Egg
“The Blue Ridge mountains are full of campers,” the Waynesboro News announced in 1928. “They camp just anywhere they can get a cool breeze. Everyone who owns land in Sugar Hollow is very attentive,...
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Schooling the Children: Sugar Hollow & White Hall
There was a time when the more rurally you lived, the more likely it was that you learned your first letters and numbers and, maybe, how to sign your name, from someone in your immediate family. For a...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Harvest Time: Reaping the Good Fruits of Hard Labor
If you were fortunate enough to grow up in a farming community, you learned that harvest times arrived at various seasons throughout the year. “When I was ten, I started thinning corn in the...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Pearl Harbor, 1941: On a More Personal Note
“Have you got a pencil handy?” asked the voice on the other end of the phone line. It was Sunday afternoon, shortly after 2 o’clock. Prior to the telephone’s ring, Steve Early, a native son of Crozet,...
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Secrets of the Blue Ridge: Crozet Past: Enduring the Rough Patches While...
The town of Crozet came into existence in 1876 to fulfill the need for a freight siding to facilitate the receiving of building materials for the Miller Manual Labor School of Albemarle. Subsequently,...
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