Touring Bluefield’s immaculate gardens is a delight for the senses. In the 20th century Bluefield was on fire. Its streets rumbled with passing coal trains, boiled with people, simmered with life. This southern West Virginia town sprang up from the soil of the bituminous industry, its population swelling fast as word got around that the valley boasted the largest deposit of soft burning coal in the world….
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Before America fell in love with beer, hard cider was its drink of choice. Imagine your great-great-great-grandpa rambling down some cobblestone street, out on the town with his buddies. They bust through swinging doors into a dark saloon, step past the tables and brass spittoons, and belly up to the bar. What do they order? Whiskey or bourbon or rum, maybe, but beer—probably not. More than likely, the barkeep…
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Elk disappeared from West Virginia’s woods more than 100 years ago, but they’re on the way back. Studying a map of West Virginia, you soon begin to notice a pattern. There’s an Elk Creek that flows through Clarksburg, and another Elk Creek between Man and Gilbert in Mingo County. There’s an Elk Mountain in Webster County and, not too far away, a place near Green Bank called Elk Lick…
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What’s a company town to do when the company leaves town? When we think today of company towns—those communities whose economies rely almost entirely on one big business or industry—the prototype we come up with is invariably not modern. We think of the town of Spruce, with its rows of identical clapboard houses, which was so reliant on logging and…
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Celebrate berry season with this inhalable blackberry cobbler. As the late poet Seamus Heaney wrote, “summer’s blood” is inside blackberries, “leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for picking.” It’s just the season for picking, too. The end of summer through early autumn is berry season and has berry pickers rushing to the bush. There are 13 pick-your-own farms across…
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