Roxy Todd has been working with the 219 Project since October, 2011, when she began working as a VISTA volunteer. Prior to this project, Roxy has worked as a teacher, a massage therapist, and a farm worker. She graduated from Warren Wilson College in 2005. In 2006 she wrote and directed a rock opera with Patrick Seick called "Osama Baby", and she has just finished writing her first novel, "The Girl in the Glass".
Common chicory (Cichorium intybus) adorns the graveled roadsides from July to November. Its spreading, azure blue ray flower heads, profusely scattered along its stems, affirm its Mediterranean ancestry, as does the flower’s siesta-like closing in the afternoons. Similar to its cousin endive (Cichorium endivia), chicory’s slightly bitter lance-shaped to oblong toothed leaves are used fresh […]
The project “Traveling 219: a Trip Through History on the Seneca Trail” has for the past two and a half years worked to tell the stories of the people and places along US 219 in West Virginia. We have written newspaper articles, produced audio stories for WV Public Radio, and developed this website. All along, […]
Today, the National Radio Observatory in Green Bank, WV stands a great chance of being shut down. Many local residents and visitors to the area are contemplating the possible effects that this change would have for Pocahontas County. Much of the reason that the radio observatory at Green Bank exists in rural West Virginia is […]
Soda pop, postcards and historic photographs—just the things the roadside wanderer might seek—for sale at Sharp’s Country Store in Slatyfork. The store first opened in 1884 and has been run by the Sharp family for generations. Sharp’s also carries homespun wool blankets by JoAnn Gardner, whose great grandmother used to deliver her wool products to […]
Just outside of Elkins, along the Laurel Mountain Ridge, the first snowfall covered the trees, and ice coated the historic, and lovely mountain. The landscape of Laurel Mountain was changed this winter as four new windmills were installed just before one of the first snows. Americorps volunteer and photographer, Terry Hackney, visited the AES windmill […]
The McNeel Mill at Mill Point, which is being restored today by local resident Matt Tate, 150 years after it was first constructed in this once bustling little West Virginia mountain town. If you’ve driven U.S. Route 219 through Mill Point,you’ve probably seen the old McNeel Mill, which has stood down on Stamping Creek since […]
In 2012, the Traveling 219 Project featured a story about beloved Hillsboro resident, Norma Mikesell, and the inspiration she gave to those around her. In January, 2013, Norma Mikesell passed away at the age of 92. To honor Norma, who meant so much to so many, here is Emma’s story about Norma, as well as […]
Dr. Jerry Bruce Thomas, author of An Appalachian New Deal, was interviewed by Jessie Wright Mendoza, who produced this audio piece “An Almost Perfect State.” To read the WV Guide online, click here. Or to jump right to Tour 8, which follows the same path as the Traveling 219 Project along US 219, click here. The Federal Writers’ Project in […]
He would write on a green Oliver typewriter, seated on a child-sized armchair with rollers at the bottom. Each day he would write, hour after hour, facing the trains that rushed past him on their way to the Blackwater Canyon. He’d write a poem and if he didn’t like it he would crumple it up, start over again. Day after day. Often, he would drink. It didn’t take but a few beers to drown him because Karl Dewey Myers never weighed more than 60 pounds.
photo of Jesse Holesapple by Burke Shires. Early in the 1900s, if you were to find yourself walking into the old Second Creek store in Monroe County, you might see a flash of green ruffled feathers as a parrot takes off above your head, over the barrels of rice and beans and out through the […]
Welcome back to Traveling 219! The Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area is proud to be the successor organization to all the great work that was done by the Pocahontas Communications Cooperative and other Partners a decade ago on this project. We are currently updating the website and look forward to reengaging with the stories of the people and places that we discover Traveling 219. If you have any feedback on the project, or would like to get involved, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Feel free to report to us any broken links or other out of date content as you explore our site!
Located in the historic Darden Mill in Elkins, WV the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center invites you to explore the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area’s rich cultural and forest heritage. Through its engaging exhibits and knowledgeable staff, the Discovery Center acts as a welcome center for the AFNHA where you can get information about other forest heritage sites in the region.
ON DISPLAY NOW
Seneca Trail: Native Travel through the Appalachian Forest
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].
by Matt Wilson Silver Lake is a small community located in the southeastern part of Preston County near the West Virginia-Maryland border. The community is named for a man-made lake of the same name, which is located within a private campground in the community. Built in 1928, the lake is retained by a small concrete […]
Young Elkins Musicians Help Revive Old Time Music
photo of the Alleycats outside the Delmonte in Elkins, by Bill King. The Tribble’s house stands out from the street because of the solar panels on the roof, and because even from outside you can hear the sound of 16-year-old Walter King warming up his fiddle. Beside him stands Nevada Tribble, with long, straight red […]
Civil War Sites Along (and near) U.S. Rt. 219
You can zoom in and out of this map and click & drag it to move around and explore it. Click on the different colored markers for more information on that particular civil war site. Timeline of Events in West Virginia during the Civil War along or near U.S. Route 219. 1861: June 3, […]
The 1892 Civil Rights Case of Coketon, West Virginia
About a year ago, a new historical marker sign went up in front of the Tucker County Court House, in Parsons, West Virginia along U.S. Route 219. The sign commemorates an exceptional story in West Virginia history, when a brave African American school teacher stood up to her local school board and sued them for […]
1906 was a tough year for Charles Darwin Gillespie. Gillespie, an infamous saloon owner and liquor runner was being sued for $20,000, a fortune at the time. It was only ten years earlier that Charles Darwin Gillespie left Virginia in a pair of dusty boots, a derby hat, and his only black suit. He arrived […]
The stories and programs of Traveling 219 are made possible by generous support the Pocahontas County Free Libraries, as well as the following partners.
