Hey everyone! I hope it’s been a good week!
Here’s another edition of Southwest Field Notes, with more things to take interest in or be a part of as you keep reading.
Please keep in touch with me at anna@cardinalnews.org as I continue to get to know the region and all the stories there are to tell. As always, thanks for having me!
The Crooked Road is looking for affiliate venues
Whether you’re the head of a local restaurant or the organizer of a one-day festival, as long as you work to preserve traditional Appalachian music, your venue could be a part of the Crooked Road.
The Crooked Road, Virginia’s 330-mile driving trail along U.S. 58, also includes more than 40 affiliate venues tucked into the mountains of its Southwest Virginia footprint.
Now, Virginia’s heritage music trail is accepting applications for its 2027 program across the 19 counties it serves.
Becoming an affiliate makes you part of a recognizable tourism brand in the greater Southeast, said executive director Tyler Hughes. Venues will receive marketing resources, networking support and help finding acts, as well as being added to promotions for the larger trail.
If someone is coming into the region to visit the Carter Family Fold, one of 10 major venues on the road, they have their plan for Saturday night at the venue in Hiltons. But they can fill their Friday night with one of the affiliate venues, Hughes said.
There are some requirements, like being in operation for at least two years and demonstrating accessibility to all, Hughes said. But the most important is tying back to the mission of the road: showcasing Appalachian heritage music.
“When people are coming to the Road and going to a place like Lays Hardware … they’re walking into a place that happens every week, just the same,” he said. “What we’re marketing to the world … is a really authentic look for culture and life in Appalachia.”
Applications will be accepted through Sept. 30 at 5 p.m. They will be reviewed by a board, and a decision will be made by Dec. 15.
Wise as a college town
It’s the first weekend after students returned to school at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Micah McDermott doesn’t want students to pile into their cars and head to Johnson City.
He wants them to come down the road, by car or university shuttle, and join his “Melt the Limits Challenge,” a community event designed to bring students into Wise.
McDermott and his wife, Beverlee, have been serving crispy Reuben sandwiches and honey mustard slathered potatoes to customers since their food truck, Just Melt It, opened at its new location in March.
This Saturday, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., they will take over Main Street with an obstacle course. Anyone 18 and over can get a punch card, then work to complete the challenges — crawling across a horizontal net without touching the ground, making it up a peg board hole by hole and more.
Cadets will punch their cards, and when they finish eight out of 10 challenges, they can turn it in for a free meal.
As a newcomer to Wise six years ago, McDermott saw their business as a way to bridge the gap between the college and the town.
“This could be a fun college town,” he said. “So it’s time for us to start doing stuff, to start getting kids into town and start building [it] for the students.”
Registration is free, and participants have unlimited attempts to complete the challenges. They’re not too hard, he promised.
A wrench with a story
You can head to the Appalachia Cultural Arts Center on Sunday afternoon to learn about railroading and coal mining — with your ears, and also your eyes.
Dennis Reedy, a retired teacher, lives in Big Stone Gap but grew up across the county line in Clinchco. Living in the coal camp with his parents, Reedy loved history from older generations and especially loved when his dad brought fossils home from his work on a surface mine.
So began Reedy’s collection of artifacts, a few of which he will take to the cultural center: oxen shoes, a miner’s hat. Each item has a story, Reedy said.
He picked up one of his favorites in Clinchco a few days ago — a wrench that Reedy believes came from the 1903 wreckage of a Southern Railway freight train in Danville (which inspired a local ballad, “Wreck of the Old 97”).
Want to hear the full story? Drop by the cultural center on Main Street, Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Reedy, 69, has also authored several books on Clinchco, including two in recent years alongside his cousin. The two wanted to preserve as much of their home as they could while the town turned over with new generations.
“I think people oughta know about their past. Give these old timers some recognition for what they did, what they went through,” he said. “Just don’t forget them, you know.”
