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The Big Itch

The Big Itch

 

Poison ivy is nothing to be trifled with. Years ago, I wrote a column for this magazine called “In Praise of Poison Ivy” – about how its berries keep birds alive in winters when there is little else for them to eat. Praise isn’t something I’ve been much inclined to heap on poison ivy recently. It’s been giving me a time since sometime in late May, when I must have made serious contact with the vine.  That’s easy to do, because it’s rampant here, carpeting forest floors, wreathing tree trunks, infiltrating my clearing from the perimeters. For a long time, I was very wary of it, having had a case bad enough
20 or 30 years ago to need a shot and steroids. Recently, I’ve become more careless. Every once in a while I’ve had to apply calamine to a spot on my forearms or hands, but in a few days it’s always cleared up.

 

Ty Cobb: Death in the Dark

Ty Cobb: Death in the Dark

The world knows Ty Cobb was among the best baseball players ever, and likely the fiercest. Did what happened between his parents one night when he was 18 years old contribute to both his huge success and his bitter, uncompromising style on the field ...

15 Wildflower Favorites

15 Wildflower Favorites

Blue Ridge Parkway Favorites For Your Garden

Here’s a highly subjective list of 15 favorite wildflowers you’ll find blooming along the Blue Ridge Parkway – from diminutive trout lily and bloodroot, whose cheerful yellow and white blooms signal the end...

Cold Mountain's Hero

Cold Mountain's Hero

“Cold Mountain,” the new movie starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger, is based on Charles Frazier’s novel set in the mountains of North Carolina. Elizabeth Hunter recently paid a visit to the spot where some say Pinkney Inman died.

 

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The Mabrys of Mabry Mill

The Mabrys of Mabry Mill


...Or, Giving Lizzie Mabry Her Due

About 3 million people a year visit the beautiful spot at Blue Ridge Parkway milepost 176.2, where nearly 100 years ago a strong, hard-working couple came to live and make themselves a life on the land. These days at...

The Lonesome Death of Ottie Cline Powell

The Lonesome Death of Ottie Cline Powell

Hiking trails always seem to lead up , and the long section of the Appalachian Trail rising from VA 130 near Snowden to the top of Bluff Mountain is no exception. The ascent takes your breath away; so does the view from the mountain summit.

Bluff Mount...

Bramwell, WV - Village of Millionaires

Bramwell, WV - Village of Millionaires

Turn-of-the-century Bramwell, West Virginia, was a rich little town with more millionaires than any place of its size in America. Tucked away in the coal fields, 14 millionaires or perhaps 19, depending on which account you read lived sumptuously alo...

Rising Tide: The Fight Against Mountaintop Removal Mining

Rising Tide: The Fight Against Mountaintop Removal Mining

People involved in the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) in Appalachian region gathered in West Virginia for a weekend last May 2006. Some 300 came from 19 states. They ranged from veteran coalfield activists and documentary filmmaker...

Did Edith Maxwell Murder Her Father in 1935?

Did Edith Maxwell Murder Her Father in 1935?

Kentucky-born, Virginia-raised reporter Sharon Hatfield has published a book on a crime that’s been half-forgotten and never satisfactorily resolved. In 1935, Edith Maxwell, a 21-year-old schoolteacher, became an overnight celebrity – for patricide s...

RVing The Blue Ridge Parkway

RVing The Blue Ridge Parkway

I recently tried RVing for the first time. My little tent is sure going to get lonely during future forays into the Blue Ridge Mountains. As a long-time tent camper and fan of Blue Ridge Parkway road trips, the idea of trying an RV for the first time...

Stones That Sing

Stones That Sing

Carilloneur David Breneman Rings the Bells in Luray, Va.

“You want to try it?” David Breneman asks, and I’m afraid to say yes.

An hour ago, we climbed three flights of stairs, going floor by concrete floor up to the top of an almost- 70-year-old stone ...

Rivers of Change

Rivers of Change

Recent cycles of drought and deluge have brought water to the forefront of regional environmental issues. Here’s a look at the state of H 2 O in Appalachia.

"Thousands have lived without love, not one without water." —W.H.Auden

In late March 2009, some 4...

A Hemlock Essay

A Hemlock Essay

A few years ago, while backpacking through Olympic National Park, I crossed paths with a fellow Easterner who hailed from Washington, DC. Being an outdoor enthusiast and living so close to Shenandoah National Park, I thought I might glean a few insid...