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".
Last fall, a friend named Mike came to visit Pocahontas County on his red BMW motorcycle. Emily the adventurous one asked Mike for a ride, and I followed in my car, and the three of us adventured onto the Highland Scenic Highway. Shadowed by giant red spruce trees and honeycomb rocks, we stopped at one […]
Friday evening of September 29, 2012, I recorded an interview with Dixie Lee Hoke, in Monroe County. Neither of us realized it at the time, but September 29th was the 23rd anniversary of her uncle Aubrey’s death. I’ve heard too much about this Aubrey not to wish with all my heart that I’d been able […]
FROM THE ARCHIVES of the West Virginia Writers’ Project, Greenbrier County: “I was plowing on General Davis’s farm in 1856, unsuspicious of being on insecured ground when suddenly the earth seemed to fall beneath me. I saw the horses descending, but was too frightened to let go the plow handles. When I landed, I fell […]
FROM THE ARCHIVES of the West Virginia Writers’ Project, Tucker County: The City of Rivers ** Here, where two rivers, born of highland springs, Wed to beget another, greater still, And where peace hovers on untroubled wings Amidst the song of factory and mill, ** Here, […]
Pocahontas Woods is a non- profit educational center in downtown Marlinton. Work is showcased and sold at multiple galleries in Lewisburg, Thomas, Beckley, and Snowshoe W.Va. as well as online. Mike Hefner, a 34-year-old former construction worker learns wood-craftsmanship after a life changing injury. Six years ago, he began volunteering at Pocahontas Woods in Marlinton, […]
Don Olson produces maple syrup on his 75-acre farm. At 7 a.m. the air around the farm in Blue Rock, W.Va. is filled with a sweet aroma. The scent comes from the small 27 by 21 feet sugarhouse where Olson is already sitting, preparing for the day’s syrup production. The Olsons’ Blue Rock Farm in […]
The Great Depression and THE guidebook of West Virginia The book featured in the photo to the left is called West Virginia: A Guide to the Mountain State, published by the West Virginia Writers’ Project in 1941. It was written over seventy years ago during the Great Depression, and though most local libraries own a […]
“US Route 219, known in West Virginia as the Seneca Trail…. …Closely follows the section of the Warriors Road that crossed the State. The route traversed a region known in the early history of Virginia as West Augusta, which in the dark days of the Revolution is said to have inspired George Washington to […]
Youghiogheny Forest Colony It’s the year 1935. The Hemlock forest outside Aurora, WV is full of laughter, and music. Through the snowy trees a cabin is aglow, with about 12 people gathered inside. This was the Youghiogheny Forest Colony. Viola: Oh they had weird theories, like it was a camp of nudists, which it never […]
“Only one group of early Maryland settlers has descendants who have never given up their distinguishing customs: These are the Amish living near Grantsville in Garrett County. The German-Swiss Amishmen, Mennonite fundamentalists, came to Maryland from Pennsylvania during the eighteenth century. Like their forefathers, they scorn participation in government. Amish clothing is always fastened with […]
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].
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