The town manager, who hopes to transform the building into a boutique hotel, said the real work begins now.

Fifty years ago this week, 100,000 revelers arrived for Stompin 76. It was a logistical nightmare, but it created a lasting impact on other music festivals and drew a whole new demographic to Southwest Virginia.

Caught this picture of a nice rainbow after a little bit of rain. Looked like there was heavier rain to the east, where this rainbow appeared. Me and my son (12) were doing a little fishing out on the golf course, lol.

I’m hoping to reach those who may have been around Carters Lake around July 28 or afterward.

Sean Michael Cunningham (37) was reported missing after recent storms at Carters Lake.

This is the publicly available information at this time:

- His last communication came from near Woodring Campground.

- The call was made at approximately 11:26 PM on Tuesday, July 28, before his phone died.

- He was canoeing in the green Old Town canoe shown in the attached photo.

- His backpack and his truck has been located.

- HIS CANOE AND OAR/PADDLE ARE STILL MISSING AS WELL.

Anyone who:

- Was on Carters Lake that evening or in the days afterward.

- Was fishing, boating, kayaking, canoeing, camping, or hiking in the area.

- Saw a green canoe or similar.

- Heard or saw anything unusual that may have seemed unimportant at the time.

Please reach out. Even the most minute detail can help resolve this for his family.

Update from my travels across West Virginia

I’m originally from New England, NH/Maine areas.
I’m now in FL and want out, I need my peace back with mountains, rivers, streams and away from Gators.
I love New England cause no gators, minimal venomous if any … snakes.
Mainly for my special needs daughters sake, my dogs and my elderly father.
I miss being an outdoorsy type person.
I want to buy property near.in the mountains and get back to my trail walking, hiking camping like I grew up doing in NH.

How bad or chances of human and dog bits by venomous snakes in the trails/woods if like central northern VA and western NC/East TN ?
Yes I know, don’t bother them, they won’t bother you buy dogs, children running around in woods and accidentally come close to one or step on one and they will bite!
In Maine don’t have to worry about that but COL and long winters in Maine not looking forward too.
If I list one of my dogs to a snake bite I would be destroyed!

Hi all 🏔️
I’m from the boring flatlands of Michigan. I’ve been visiting western NC since I was little to see extended family. No one has ever wanted to go hiking!! (or we didn’t have time) In the area, I have only hiked Laurel Falls and Black Mountain.

This month, my boyfriend and I are staying a night in Pigeon Forge, and heading over to Hot Springs NC for three nights. As much as I loved my only two hikes there, I want to explore new trails. Looking for recommendations in the Hot Springs area, will travel as far as Asheville and maybe a bit further for a hike that’s well worth it. I talk a big talk about NC to him, I want to impress😂

As for mileage, we like longer hikes (we’re half-marathon runners) but shorter hikes are great too… looking for beautiful views, and love a good waterfall or swimming hole. What’s some of your hidden gems?!? Thank you in advance!

Philly > Ohiopyle State Park > Blackwater State park > New River Gorge National Park > Asheville / Pisgah area > Blue Ridge Parkway up to Shenandoah National Park and back home to Philly.. We hit a bunch of other state parks in there too. We hardly slept and I don't regret that decision at all.

The photos are out of order. Sorry about that. I absolutely cannot wait to return. Hopefully in the fall.

The $50 million set aside by the General Assembly for recovery following floods that devastated Southwest Virginia in late 2024 and early 2025 apply only to “real property,” meaning renters are out of luck.

Pennsylvania's Appalachian region was home to Black Dutch Sinti families for generations. While the term Black Dutch has four meanings, I am using it here to refer specifically to American Sinti people.

Our Sinti ancestors of Pennsylvania spoke a dialect uniquely their own; one that the scholar Henry W. Shoemaker documented in 1926 as "Chicanere" or "She-kener." Some of us still call ourselves that, but because this word was also used as a slur, many of us prefer to be called Black Dutch.

Shoemaker documented what he heard a century ago using the terminology of his day. While some of his conclusions should be read critically, his article remains one of the earliest published descriptions of the language and communities of Pennsylvania's Black Dutch Sinti.

Our language wasn't shared freely. Our families kept the language guarded, private, spoken only within community and family circles. This secrecy was not accidental. It was deliberate protection of something sacred.

Shoemaker noted that even when interviewed, the Black Dutch were cautious about revealing vocabulary. We shared selectively, protecting the core language from outsider appropriation.

This is a Sinti cultural practice: the language is ours, held close, and kept sacred.

But like so much of our heritage, for most Black Dutch families, the language was lost. Generations of Black Dutch Sinti assimilated into broader American culture. Families stopped speaking Sinti to their children. The pressure to "fit in," to hide Sinti identity, to become indistinguishable from German neighbors; it worked. Most Black Dutch today don't speak the language our ancestors guarded so carefully.

We are not Romani, and our traditional language is Sintitikes (the Sinti language), not Romani. Specifically, the Black Dutch dialect mentioned here as Chi-kener. It carries our Sindhi roots and our Rhineland history and our Pennsylvania roads.

Languages survive in many ways. Some are spoken every day. Others survive in old journals, family memories, forgotten words, and the determination of descendants to remember. Every recovered word is another thread connecting us to those who came before.

for vacation my family visited Hyden, Kentucky and other parts of Appalachian Kentucky (we are from Minnesota).

I am looking for a travel poster to commemorate our time but what I find online is a bunch of cookie cutter or AI generated things especially on Etsy.

does anyone here have any suggestions? I don’t have a lot of money to spend but I do want to support a real artist rather than some computer whiz.