Dan Schultz began working with the Traveling 219 Project as an AmeriCorps Vista in the fall of 2012. A newcomer to West Virginia, he has always been fascinated by the the mountains, having previously lived in the mountains of Arizona and Guatemala. Dan is from the route 219 state of Maryland, where he studied history at the University of Maryland and developed an interest in the history and the culture of the nearby Appalachian mountains. He also has experience working at and interning with the National Archives and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
The Traveling 219 Project continues its Maryland series, at a place where US route 219 becomes part of a major interstate i-68, in the northern part of Garrett County. This also happens to be where rt. 219 crosses rt. 40 the historic National Road, the first federally funded road in the country, built back in […]
It would be easy today for visitors in Ronceverte to pass by one of the area’s most historic buildings without even knowing it. Down on Main Street sits the shell of Shanklin’s Grand Theatre, which at one time represented the heart of a once bustling little city. But interest in places like the old theatre–which […]
“In West Virginia, as in other parts of the United States, many rural families relied on sorghum molasses as a sweetener during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The flavor lies between black strap molasses and light caramel syrup and is far less sweet than honey.” Mark F. Sohn, -WV-encyclopedia Aja Saldana presents this […]
Come listen to history come alive! The Traveling 219 project and Appalachian Forest Heritage Area AmeriCorps are collaborating on a series of multimedia storytelling performances in June along Route 219! “Tall Shadows Passing By: Folktales and Music from these Hills” is a live performance event presented by Traveling 219. Over the course of an hour, we’ll be […]
If you live around Marlinton, you’ve probably been to the post office countless times and noticed the murals hanging above the doors inside the lobby. Those murals represent a piece of history that goes well beyond the borders of Pocahontas County and are reflected in post offices and federal buildings around the country. While traveling […]
Another audio story in the Greenbrier Episcopal School series, featuring students from Birch Graves’ class. Here are Wyatt Bair, Bronwyn McMahan O’Shea, Alex Casto talking about the projects they researched for their social studies class: Shanklin’s Grand Theatre in Ronceverte, O’Shea’s All About Beauty in Lewisburg, and the Ginkgo Tree in Lewisburg. We’ll be posting […]
World War Two Veteran Sherman Beard remembers flying over Europe as a B-24 pilot in the last months of the war. Sherman was stationed in Foggia, Italy in 1945, where he flew 35 missions over Europe. Traveling 219 interviewed him recently about his experiences, and put this piece together in commemoration of Veterans Day. Sherman […]
“A magnificent vista of wooded mountaintops, green cultivated valleys and distant blue ranges.” – 1941, the West Virginia Writers’ Project guide. Hillsboro is the home of these popular historic destinations: -Pearl S. Buck Birthplace and Museum (in Hillsboro) http://www.pearlsbuckbirthplace.com/ -Pretty Penny Café (in Hillsboro, located in an old general store) http://www.wvyourway.com/west_virginia/AdView.aspx?sid=4431 -5.2 m. Watoga State […]
The town of Oakland, Maryland lies 11.5 miles north of the West Virginia-Maryland line on U.S. Route 219. The history of Oakland is linked to the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which laid its tracks through the Allegheny Mountains of Western Maryland in the 1850s. When the original train station in Oakland burned down, the current […]
Click the map to download a high-resolution copy of the Traveling 219 map, or pick up a hard copy at one of many locations along U.S. Route 219. You may also view our interactive map of Traveling 219 stories [HERE].
Follow us