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 […]
For all you bluegrass fans, the Traveling 219 Project presents Richard Hefner and the story of the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys–the local Pocahontas County, West Virginia born and bred music staple. Richard grew up in Mill Point with his family, where his mother Elsie ran the post office and served as the matriarch to a […]
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.
In the days before Wal-Mart, the general store was a fixture of most rural communities, like those along Route 219. Here was your post office, grocery store, gas station, and hardware store. Listen as Bill and Richard Hefner talk about their family’s general store in Mill Point. Meandering through the Allegheny Mountains, US Route 219 […]
“In the days before television and the internet, traveling carnivals brought a more exciting world to the modest lives of regular folks across the country, including the rural towns of the Alleghenies. These traveling carnivals roamed from town to town, offering a brief glimpse into the extraordinary world shows, games, rides, and displays of the exotic […]
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 […]
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 […]
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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