Small Towns of Virginia Series

Small Towns of Virginia Series - Clintwood

Clintwood, the county seat of Dickenson County, was established in 1882 when the Virginia General Assembly moved the Dickenson County Seat from Ervinton to what was then known as Holly Creek. Ervinton was located near the present-day community of Nora, a few miles to the south.

Many small towns in Southwestern Virginia including Clintwood have roots in bluegrass and mountain music. Clintwood is located on Virginia's Crooked Road and is home to the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center. Stanley, considered to be the patriarch of Bluegrass music, was born in nearby Big Spraddle and was a resident of Dickenson County his whole life. Stanley and his brother Carter formed the legendary Stanley Brothers group with the Clinch Mountain Boys as their band. After his brother's death in 1966, Stanley would continue solo with the Clinch Mountain Boys. Stanley was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2000. That same year, Stanley would gain new notoriety when the hit film O Brother, Where Art Thou? was released. Stanley would win a Grammy in 2002 for the Best Male Vocal Country Performance. Ralph Stanley passed away at age 89 in June of 2016.

The Jettie Baker Center is the renovated home of the former Mullins Theatre. The 350 seat theatre was built in the late 1940s and was donated to the town by Jettie Baker. It is home to numerous performances year round including an open bluegrass jam on Friday nights.

Dickenson County Courthouse

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Comments

Tena Greear said…

My Hometown! I grew up going to Mullins theatre on Saturday nights. Friday night was reserved for Clintwood Greenwave championship football!

10:07 PM

Anonymous said…

Crime corruption and greed is all you'll find in this beautiful county if not for coal mines jails and prison they'd be no industry there's 5 dr s offices and 6 pharmacies on main street and they wonder why they have a drug problem and our justice system is so corrupt they make up their own laws as they go along

2:24 PM

Deer Isle Bridge in Maine

As graceful a bridge that I ever set my eyes upon, the Deer Isle Bridge (officially known as the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge) surprisingly caught my eye as I was driving around coastal Maine one Saturday afternoon. About 35 miles south of Bangor, Maine , the Deer Isle Bridge connects the Blue Hill Peninsula of Downeast Maine with Little Deer Isle over the Eggemoggin Reach on ME 15 between the towns of Sedgwick and Deer Isle . It should be noted that Little Deer Isle is connected to Deer Isle by way of a boulder lined causeway, and there is a storied regatta that takes place on the Eggemoggin Reach each summer. But the Deer Isle Bridge holds many stories, not just for the vacationers who spend part of their summer on Deer Isle or in nearby Stonington , but for the residents throughout the years and the folks who have had a hand bringing this vital link to life. The Deer Isle Bridge was designed by David Steinman and built by the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville,

Former US Route 99 through Athlone and the last Wheeler Ridge-Sacramento corridor expressway

Athlone was a siding of the Southern Pacific Railroad located in Merced County on the alignment of what was US Route 99 between the cities of Chowchilla and Merced. The Athlone corridor of US Route 99 was one of the first in San Joaquin Valley to fully upgraded to four lane expressway standards. The Athlone expressway corridor was inherited by California State Route 99 when US Route 99 was truncated to Ashland, Oregon during June 1965. The four-lane expressway through Athlone was the last segment of what had been US Route 99 in the Wheeler Ridge-Sacramento corridor to be bypassed by a freeway. The Athlone expressway corridor was bypassed by the modern California State Route 99 freeway in 2016. Despite being put on a road diet and narrowed what was the Athlone expressway corridor still displays evidence of being part of US Route 99. Above the blog cover photo displays the Athlone expressway corridor of US Route 99 south of Merced as depicted in the July 1939 California Highways &

California State Route 38

California State Route 38 is a fifty-nine-mile State Highway located entirety in San Bernardino County and a component of the Rim of the World Highway. California State Route 38 begins at California State Route 18 at Bear Valley Dam of the San Bernardino Mountains and follows an easterly course on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. California State Route 38 briefly multiplexes California State Route 18 near Baldwin Lake and branches east towards the 8,443-foot-high Onyx Summit. From Onyx Summit the routing of California State Route 38 reverses course following a largely westward path through the San Bernardino Mountains towards a terminus at Interstate 10 in Redlands. Pictured as the blog cover is California State Route 38 at Onyx Summit the day it opened to traffic on August 12th, 1961. Part 1; the history of California State Route 38 California State Route 38 (CA 38) is generally considered to be the back way through the San Bernardino Mountains to Big Bear Lake of Bear Valley

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