Download or read book Best of the Blue Ridge Parkway written by Nye Simmons and published by Mountain Trail Press LLC. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with detailed information on the best hikes, scenic stops, waterfalls, and historic locations, this is the ultimate guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia, one of America's most visited national parks. Information on lodging, way stations, side trips, hiking trails, and attractions of interest is included--ideal for the time-pressed traveler who wants to hit the high points of the park. Full-color photographs, photographer's notes, and photo tips complement the detailed descriptions of the park's attractions, making this handbook both a travel guide and a compilation to treasure.
Download or read book Blue Ridge Folklife written by Ted Olson and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2010-02-11 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the years immediately preceding the founding of the American nation the Blue Ridge region, which stretches through large sections of Virginia and North Carolina and parts of surrounding states along the Appalachian chain, was the American frontier. In colonial times, it was settled by hardy, independent people from several cultural backgrounds that did not fit with the English-dominated society. The landless, the restless, and the rootless followed Daniel Boone, the most famous of the settlers, and pushed the frontier westward. The settlers who did not migrate to new lands became geographically isolated and politically and economically marginalized. Yet they created fulfilling lives for themselves by forging effective and oftentimes sophisticated folklife traditions, many of which endure in the region today. In 1772 the Blue Ridge was the site of the Watauga Association, often cited as the first free and democratic non-native government on the American continent. In 1780 Blue Ridge pioneers helped win the Revolutionary War for the patriots by defeating Patrick Ferguson's army of British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. When gold was discovered in the southernmost section of the Blue Ridge, America experienced its first gold rush and the subsequent tragic displacement of the region's aboriginal people. Having been spared by the coincidence of geology and topography from the more environmentally damaging manifestations of industrialization, coal mining, and dam building, the Blue Ridge region still harbors scenic natural beauty as well as vestiges of the earliest cultures of southern Appalachia. As it describes the most characteristic and significant verbal, customary, and material traditions, this fascinating, fact-filled book traces the historical development of the region's distinct folklife.
Download or read book Moonshiner s Daughter written by Mary Judith Messer and published by Doing Well Now Publishers. This book was released on 2010-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moonshiner's Daughter is the early life story of a young girl raised in the some of the most remote, backwoods parts of Haywood County, North Carolina, deep in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. Her father, an ardent moonshiner when he wasn't in prison, and her mother, often showing mental illness from an earlier brain injury, raised their four children in some of the grimmest circumstances that you will ever read about. Mary Judith Messer eventually escaped her extreme living conditions by going to live with a family as their mother's helper near Washington, DC. She then moved to New York City to live with her older sister who had run away from a forced marriage. The memoir Moonshiner's Daughter is told through the eyes and words of a barely educated child and teenager yet their meaning and descriptions are clear as a mountain stream. She changed the names of most people and places to protect her still living family members. Authors Robert Morgan & Ron Rash give recommendations.
Download or read book The True Story of Tom Dooley written by John Edward Fletcher and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crime that shocked post-Civil War America and inspired the folk song that became The Kingston Trio’s hit, “Tom Dooley.” At the conclusion of the Civil War, Wilkes County, North Carolina, was the site of the nation’s first nationally publicized crime of passion. In the wake of a tumultuous love affair and a mysterious chain of events, Tom Dooley was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder of Laura Foster. This notorious crime became an inspiration for musicians, writers and storytellers ever since, creating a mystery of mythic proportions. Through newspaper articles, trial documents and public records, Dr. John E. Fletcher brings this dramatic case to life, providing the long-awaited factual account of the legendary murder. Join the investigation into one of the country’s most enduring thrillers. “Fletcher has spent a great deal of time researching almost all of the characters involved with the Foster homicide and has gone further than any researcher I know in establishing the relationships—blood, marriage and social—between the major actors in the tragedy.”—Statesville Record & Landmark
Download or read book Traditional Musicians of the Central Blue Ridge written by Marty McGee and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Central Blue Ridge, taking in the mountainous regions of northwestern North Carolina and southwestern Virginia, is well known for its musical traditions. Long recognized as one of the richest repositories of folksong in the United States, the Central Blue Ridge has also been a prolific source of commercial recording, starting in 1923 with Henry Whitter's "hillbilly" music and continuing into the 21st century with such chart-topping acts as James King, Ronnie Bowman and Doc Watson. Unrivaled in tradition, unequaled in acclaim and unprecedented in influence, the Central Blue Ridge can claim to have contributed to the musical landscape of Americana as much as or more than any other region in the United States. This reference work--part of McFarland's continuing series of Contributions to Southern Appalachian Studies--provides complete biographical and discographical information on more than 75 traditional recording (major commercial label) artists who are natives of or lived mostly in the northwestern North Carolina counties of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Surry, Watauga and Wilkes, and the southwestern Virginia counties of Carroll and Grayson. Primary recordings as well as appearances on anthologies are included in the discographies. A chronological overview of the music is provided in the Introduction, and the Foreword is by the celebrated musician Bobby Patterson, founder of the Mountain and Heritage record labels.
Download or read book Guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway written by Victoria Logue and published by Menasha Ridge Press. This book was released on 2010-08-17 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flowing among the beautiful mountains and valleys of Virginia and North Carolina, the 469-mile-long Blue Ridge Parkway is a true American jewel. Built to expose motorists to nature as well as to preserve its beauty, the Parkway still delivers unrivaled beauty today. Guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway is filled with information useful to those traveling the Parkway and is detailed with color photographs throughout. It highlights the many significant points of interest located on and nearby the Parkway, including Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi, Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, and Mabry Mill, one of the most photographed sites on the Parkway. Also noted are locations of overlooks, waterfalls, and tunnels as well as key entry and exit points along the Parkway. The guide features a brief history of the Parkway itself, a look at the surrounding geology and human history of the area, and an extensive wildflower bloom calendar. The book is organized mile-post to mile-post, appropriate for travelers who are driving the entire Blue Ridge Parkway or only a small section.
Download or read book Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina written by Randy Russell and published by Blair. This book was released on 1988 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighteen stories deal with witches, ghosts, an enchanted lake, a phantom choir, a lover's leap, Bigfoot, fairies, and magic.
Download or read book Mountain Mysteries written by Larry D. Thacker and published by The Overmountain Press. This book was released on 2006-11 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A near-obsessive pursuit of ghost stories and odd superstitions cranks up this serious study of Appalachian tales of the supernatural and their origin in both old-world customs and real historical events. An effort to preserve and record one aspect of a dying way of life, the book relies on interviews and historic documents to search for the facts behind local lore of murder, witchcraft, and weird hauntings. Several campfire-worthy ghost stories are recounted in their entirety—including "The Swinging Gate of Fern Lake Hollow"—and an unexpectedly large number of stories about aliens and UFOs provide an interesting comparison of three-century-old mysteries and those stirred up in comparatively recent times
Download or read book Super Scenic Motorway written by Anne Mitchell Whisnant and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2006-10-02 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most visited site in the National Park system, the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway winds along the ridges of the Appalachian mountains in Virginia and North Carolina. According to most accounts, the Parkway was a New Deal "Godsend for the needy," built without conflict or opposition by landscape architects and planners who traced their vision along a scenic, isolated southern landscape. The historical archives relating to this massive public project, however, tell a different and much more complicated story, which Anne Mitchell Whisnant relates in this revealing history of the beloved roadway.
Download or read book The Blue Ridge Tunnel written by Mary E. Lyons and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the construction of the historic Crozet railroad tunnel—as seen through the eyes of three Irish immigrant families who helped build it. In one of the greatest engineering feats of the time, Claudius Crozet led the completion of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1858. More than a century and a half later, the tunnel stands as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, but the stories and lives of those who built it are the true lasting triumph. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Hunger poured into America resolved to find something to call their own. They would persevere through life in overcrowded shanties and years of blasting through rock to see the tunnel to completion. In this intriguing history, Mary E. Lyons follows three Irish families in their struggle to build Crozet’s famed tunnel—and their American dream. Includes photos and illustrations
Download or read book Wayfaring Strangers written by Fiona Ritchie and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, a steady stream of Scots migrated to Ulster and eventually onward across the Atlantic to resettle in the United States. Many of these Scots-Irish immigrants made their way into the mountains of the southern Appalachian region. They brought with them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with sounds and songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and Cherokee origin. Their enduring legacy of music flows today from Appalachia back to Ireland and Scotland and around the globe. Ritchie and Orr guide readers on a musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through centuries of adaptation and change.
Download or read book Haunts of Virginia s Blue Ridge Highlands written by Joe Tennis and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2010-08-18 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “interesting collection of Southwest Virginia ghost stories” is packed with pictures and Appalachian lore (Roanoke Star-Sentinel). A Confederate soldier forever lost at Cumberland Gap. The wispy woman of Roanoke College. The spectral horse that runs the streets of Abingdon. These are just a few of the restless spirits of southwestern Virginia. Join local author Joe Tennis as he takes readers on both sides of the Blue Ridge to explore the ghostly tales of Appalachia and the Crooked Road. Peer over the rim of the New Castle Murder Hole, dive into the mysteries of Mountain Lake, and wander among the lost graves of Wise County to discover the haunted lore of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Highlands. This book bridges the Blue Ridge Parkway and follows the entire length of the Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. It explores a couple dozen counties, with tales of towns called Fincastle and Saltville tucked away in Virginia’s scenic southwestern corner. Each chapter is based on a blend of folk legends, longtime traditions, historical research, and firsthand accounts—and the book also includes a bibliography, a map, and forty-five photographs.
Download or read book Legend Tripping written by Robert C. Robinson and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Look outside the box and go on the ultimate adventure! Enter the exciting world of myth and monsters, the paranormal, UFOs and extraterrestrials, lost treasures and mysterious places. Delve into these awesome legends and learn how easy and inexpensive it is to search for the subjects of these stories, and what you’ll need to look for them. Robert Robinson presents this epic guide to the stranger sites in America and gives you some valuable pointers on legend tripping out your back door. Chapters include: Legend Tripping; Bigfoot; Other Cryptids; Bigfoot Legend Trip; Aquatic Cryptids; Aquatic Cryptid Legend Trip; Haunted Sites and the Paranormal; Paranormal Legend Trip; UFO Sites and Ghost Lights; Extraterrestrial Legend Trip; Treasure Legends; Treasure Legend Trip; Critical Thinking; Legend Trip Location; Outdoor Survival; Equipment and Tools; Your Legend Trip Begins Now!; Who’s Who in Legend Tripping; Legend Tripping in Popular Fiction; more.
Download or read book Snallygaster written by Patrick Boyton and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-08-01 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For several hundred years, tales of the Snallygaster have terrified the people of Frederick County, Maryland. Described as being half-reptile and half-bird, this winged creature is said to live deep in the caves of South Mountain. Legend has it, this mysterious monster swoops down from the sky and steals children and chickens from unsuspecting farm folk. Some say it's real. Some say it's a myth. But when they see it coming, they all say... "Better run and hide...the Snallygaster's comin' to get ya!"
Download or read book The Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad written by Mary E. Lyons and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-19 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1849, Virginia began a bold railroad expansion toward the Ohio River and its lucrative trade connections. The project's plan covered 423 miles and called for piercing two mountain chains with three railroads. The Blue Ridge Railroad was the shortest of these but crossed the most mountainous terrain. At times, hired slaves, who prepared the tracks, and Irish immigrants, who blasted the tunnels, faced challenges that seemed almost insurmountable. Many were killed by explosions and falling rock. Those deaths often resulted in labor strikes. The unrest slowed progress and haunted chief engineer Claudius Crozet for seven years. In this first full-length history of the Blue Ridge Railroad, award-winning author Mary E. Lyons uses a wealth of historical documents to describe construction on what Crozet called "dangerous ground."
Download or read book Visual Character of the Blue Ridge Parkway Virginia and North Carolina written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Waterfalls of the Blue Ridge written by Johnny Molloy and published by Menasha Ridge Press. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Waterfalls of the Blue Ridge, now in its fourth edition, combines the pleasure of hiking with the wonder of one of nature's most captivating sights: waterfalls. Outlining hikes that feature more than 110 waterfalls in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this guide has been updated with 30 new waterfalls, updates to existing routes, and new photos. Offering something for hikers of every level of experience, waterfalls range in height from 10 to 500 feet, some requiring no hike at all while others include hikes of up to 10 miles. In this guide, today's most experienced guidebook author Johnny Molloy teams up with Nicole Blouin along with Marilou and Steve Bordonaro to introduce hikers to waterfalls spanning two states, four national forests, three national parks, and eight state parks all throughout the Blue Ridge.
