Big Bull Tunnel is a utilitarian fixture in Southwest Virginia. It’s never been an actual attraction, simply another train tunnel in Wise County. It’s difficult to believe the arched throughway has such a dark and mysterious history. Construction was so problematic, and so many mishaps followed, that many suspected theContinue Reading
The Holston Salt and Plaster Company reopened an old well on August 25, 1874. The shaft was made decades earlier, when locals attempted to find water. Residents dug around 120 feet down, but it was dry. They then dug another 130 feet into salt rock, but never found water. SinceContinue Reading
“Timber Tree” is a folksy name for a relatively isolated road that bridges the Gate City/Bristol Highway, in Virginia, with the Bloomingdale area of Kingsport, Tennessee. Few were as notorious as the Powell sisters of Scott County, Virginia. Moonshiners feared them and outlaws avoided them. The Powell sisters weren’t justContinue Reading
For almost a century, the Franklin House, also known as the Franklin Hotel, was a structural staple in Richmond, Virginia. The 100-room building was given such accolades as Richmond’s “largest boarding house” and “best furnished boarding house.” The establishment housed many guests during its history, but life wasn’t always successful.Continue Reading
The Jackson family returned home to Apple Grove, Virginia, on a January night in 1959. Carroll Jackson, a husky truck driver, was 29-years old at the time. His wife Mildred rode in the passenger seat. Also in the car were four-year-old daughter Susan Ann, and baby Janet, who was 17Continue Reading
The Bunny Man legend has made its way through many states in the nation, but most people still don’t know how it started. Who was the “Bunny Man?” This staple of urban myth is a common tale in my state of Virginia. As a matter of fact, the Bunny ManContinue Reading
The phantom hitchhiker is a familiar guest on countless American roads (not even counting the global reports). This is a growing collection of ghostly hitchhikers and the lore surrounding them. The Phantom Hitchhiker of Gap Creek, Tennessee The legend of the traveler goes back years ago on that bleak stretchContinue Reading