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 […]
The Allegheny Trail is a backpacking and mountain bike trail that runs 330 miles along some of the most breathtaking mountaintops in the Allegheny and the Ridge and Valley Ranges in West Virginia. Most of its access points are within a few miles of US 219, and it follows a similar path through dense Mountain […]
The West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, edited by Jim Comstock, boasts the famous Sweet Springs recipe for mint juleps: “While the mint juleps may not have originated at Sweet Springs, although some claim it did, the Sweet Springs recipe is generally regarded as one of the best. It stipulates to the mixologist: 1. Put into a […]
The Blue Bubbling Water: Remembering Sweet Springs with Pauline Baker, narrated by Roxy Todd [the sound of bubbling spring water, music, “Take the A Train, by Duke Ellington”] Pauline: I was born at Sweet Springs, June 29th, 1910. We used to go up to the ballroom, there’s a beautiful ballroom there. We’d go up there […]
“We took them up the highway, over the old covered bridge.”- Don Rice, of Elkins, remembering driving cattle over the Chenoweth Bridge. Many local people who grew up in Beverly or Elkins remember the old Beverly Bridge, built by Lemuel Chenoweth in 1846-1847. Chenoweth was a local carpenter and a self-educated engineer who grew up in Beverly and built many wooden covered bridges, including the famous landmark of Barbour County, the Phillipi Covered Bridge. He is buried at the Beverly Cemetery.
“Our cheeks are rosy and our eyeballs are dry in their sockets from the heat of the kerosene lamps, giving the only light to our conversations.” –2012, interviewer Emily Newton remembers from her visits to Pleasant Valley Maryland. “Only one group of early Maryland settlers has descendants who have never given up their distinguishing customs: These are […]
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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