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Virginia’s Adventure Towns: Big Stone Gap – Mountains, Music, and Culture with Town Manager Steve Lawson (Ep 73, Part 2) · Virginia Outdoor Adventures: Hiking, Camping, Kayaking, Local Travel and more!

• 0:00
  Jessica Bowser: From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is a mecca for outdoor travel and adventure. Virginia outdoor adventures Podcast is your local guide for hiking, camping, kayaking, travel and so much more. Get the information and the inspiration to plan your own adventure right here in Virginia, I'm your host. Jessica Bowser, the mountains of Appalachia wrap around Big Stone Gap like a warm embrace, creating a community where outdoor adventure, history and culture converge. Town manager Steve Lawson describes how the community has transformed from its coal mining routes into a vibrant outdoor recreation destination. The town's crown jewel is the Green Belt trail, a scenic, paved path following the Powell river through the heart of town. Just minutes away. The Powell river trail offers a rail to trail experience featuring historic tunnels and visible coal seams that tell the story of the region's mining past.
• 1:02
  Jessica Bowser: Adventure seekers will fall in love with Scenic big Cherry Lake, which offers fishing, hiking, paddling and wildlife watching round out your Big Stone Gap experience with museums, outdoor theater, music festivals and a culinary scene that tops off this adventure town's charm. Let's go. This is part two of a two part episode.
• 1:23
  Jessica Bowser: Virginia Outdoor Adventures is sponsored by breaks Interstate Park brakes. Park is a hiking destination in the heart of Appalachia. Every trail features something that will awe you, including geologic formations, scenic views of the canyon, stream crossings and wildlife viewing. Trails range from easy to difficult. The convenience of lodges, campgrounds and luxury cabins inside the park means you'll never need to wander far from the trail. Come see for yourself why breaks is known as the Grand Canyon of the South.
• 2:01
  Jessica Bowser: Download the digital trail guide at breaks park.com, or click on breaks Interstate Park in the show notes of your listening app. Okay, Steve, before we jump into lodging, dining and attractions, there's one other really cool activity that Big Stone Gap hosts, and that's disc golf. And I have to admit, I'm not as familiar with disc golf, but when you were showing me the course and telling me that people come from other states for your disc golf course, I was like, Okay, we have to mention this.
• 2:32
  Unknown: You know, it's another thing that, you know, we're wide open to try anything. And we had some younger people that, after they got involved with some of the activities that the town was doing. They were, they were driving about an hour to play, you know, disc golf. And so we had a small park that we call the duck Park, because a lot of ducks come off the river, and then there's been some some domesticated ducks that have made their own families along the river and stuff too. So people would go to the duck Park and feed the ducks with kids and stuff. So to the side of the duck Park, we had a lot of unused land, so we made nine holes of disc golf, and had just exploded. And so these younger gentlemen helped us build a 18 hole course through a 78 acre patch of woods that we have that surrounded our swimming pool, and not a lot of localities have disc golf courses that go, you know, deep into the woods. Some Some of it's challenging enough.
• 3:27
  Unknown: Some of the holes are challenging enough. They're not really much wider than a path, you know, for a hiking trail. So imagine throwing a disc, you know, down through there. And so it's a challenging, you know, course. And so, bi weekly in the summertime, we'll have tournaments there, and it'll bring anywhere from 60 to 70 people from, you know, neighboring states and neighboring towns and cities, just to play that course, because it's unique. And, you know, it goes through the woods and and again, you might, you know, run a fox out from under a tree, or, see a I mean, you could see anything, you know, while you're out there doing it.
• 4:03
  Jessica Bowser: Very cool.
• 4:03
  Jessica Bowser: Steve, even before I got to Big Stone Gap, I had heard that there was quite an impressive food scene in the town. And I found it hard to believe until I got there. And I have to say, there really is, do you want to talk about it a little bit?
• 4:18
  Unknown: I'll use the word diverse again, because we have everything from Chinese to Mexican to Home Cooking to steaks or sushi or all kinds of places that is sweet tea and unsweet tea and Colas to brewery to, you know, mixed drinks or whatever that you would like, it's some of your listeners and tourists and people coming in has actually helped us revitalize the downtown. We've used the beauty of our surrounding area, our history and people coming into town to revitalize buildings that were used for different purposes.
• 4:52
  Unknown: That's where a lot of these restaurants are. As things started happening to people coming to started coming to see us and people seeing more people coming into town. Um, they started, locals started investing their money, you know, in small town America again, and that's been one of the great parts of using our great outdoor stuff to to revitalize a small town. And that's exactly what our our plan was to be the place to live and the place to entertain. Now that all the restaurants are open and there's, there's 18 to 20 within a mile of the visitor center. I mean, most of them within walking distance, all diverse. I mean, you can get ice cream, you can get coffees, you can get homemade breads, desserts. I mean, it's, it's all out there, you know, somewhere. And music is just everywhere in the summertime, you know, too, especially, you know, over the weekends and stuff, almost every venue has some kind of music going, music on the streets.
• 5:49
  Unknown: We've really become a destination for we already had Terrell Lonesome Pine, which is outdoor dramas, Virginia's official outdoor drama that run for thanks, almost 70 years now that, um, people come to see we have the southwest Virginia Museum, which we mentioned before, the John Fox Junior house, the Henry metter Cole Museum, things that you know, if somebody wants to get educated about, you know what a miner's lunch bucket looked like, and what they actually ate, or what they paid for it with, or anything else that you might would want to know about coal mining. You just have to step foot in the in the Harry better co Museum and just just plan on having a lot of time, because our people are passionate when, when we want to tell you a story, we'll take a while to tell you the stories. So that's an adventure on it itself. But
• 6:44
  Jessica Bowser: hold on, hold on, Steve, you're just, you're cracking me up right now. I think we're just, we're laughing because this feels like an inside joke, but we have to make it known that our friend Freddie, who will give you the tour of the cove Museum, is like you said, so passionate and so knowledgeable about the history of Cole. And yes, he wants to show you everything in the museum. I was with him for just an hour, and he was basically begging me to come back so that he could show me all the rest of it. But it is so interesting. He will show you everything from, like, what kind of bucket, like you said, the kind of bucket they would carry in for lunch, and what was inside of it, and everything, to his own personal photos from when he worked in a coal mine. And it's just, it's really eye opening for somebody who doesn't have knowledge about that history.
• 7:36
  Unknown: Well, that's, that's another great thing about our area, because most of our attraction sites and things are run by volunteers, and it's volunteers that are just as passionate, you know, as Freddie is about, you know, what's what's going on. It's impressive that you got away from him within an hour, because I think I told you that morning when you told me you had an appointment that he couldn't do, nothing, you know, for just an hour. So, so that's pretty impressive within itself. That tells what a tight schedule you was on. So for all your listeners, for with Freddie plan for more than an hour, because yeah, but it'll be well worth it. So Agreed, agreed. But like the trail, Lonesome Pine is all volunteers also runs, runs all summer long, you know, three days a week, and it's all you know volunteers.
• 8:19
  Jessica Bowser: Sorry, Steve, what is that based on? Because I was unfamiliar with this until I got to town and started doing my homework. And I'm sure there's other people who aren't quite familiar either.
• 8:28
  Unknown: Okay, well, the trail of Lonesome Pine it follows the story. It's a it's a love story.
• 8:32
  Unknown: It follows the tollivers and the failings that they wage a war against the outside world, you know, in industrialization, but in the middle all that, you know, there's a love story of a prospector that comes to town and a mountain girl that falls in love with him, and then just the surrounding stories of what all is going on during that time.
• 8:53
  Jessica Bowser: And this was based on a book, right? It's
• 8:55
  Unknown: a on a book by Yeah, John Fox Jr. It's played at the Barbara Polly theater, you know, here in town, within walking distance again, of you know, everything in town, it's about a 400 seat, little over 400 seats of an outdoor theater. It does have all its amenities. It has, you know, nice restrooms and concession stand and everything.
• 9:14
  Unknown: And it has audience participation. They'll pick some people to be jurors. You know, out of the audience. The fundamental part of it all is, you know, some of the people that are acting now, their grandmothers actually acted in it, and their grandfathers actually, you know, acted in it.
• 9:29
  Unknown: So it's just a tradition that just keeps on living. The southwest Virginia Museum, you know, it's a state park. It's the only state park really located inside of a town. It's a mansion that was built by Rufus Ayers in the 1880s and he was a Virginia Attorney General. All the exhibits go from the history of big stone from 1870s when there was North businessmen that I was talking about earlier. You come to big stone to make it the Pittsburgh or the south. So. It goes all the way through that, you know, from that time through, you know, history today,
• 10:05
  Jessica Bowser: that is a beautiful building. It is a stunning, like, architectural building that the outside and the inside are gorgeous. Yeah,
• 10:14
  Unknown: we we have a lot of tools to work with. I mean, you know, when you get here, our Big Stone Gap Visitor Center, which you should visit right off the bat to get all your information about you know where to go and when everything's open, and this and that, it's actually a flank Frank Lloyd Wright designed gas station, and when, for the people that are into architecture and design and stuff, when you step back and look at it, you can see it. I mean, you know, you know exactly who did it want you to, you know, start looking at it and stuff, just all kinds of unique things, you know, that are, that are here the John Fox Junior house, which pays homage to, you know, him for, you know, not only writing the trail Lonesome Pine, he wrote several books, little shepherd of Kingdom Come probably being his, You know, most popular That house was built in 1888 and all the original furnishings. And, you know, things are still in there.
• 11:05
  Unknown: We do different dinners and things from there. And that's also all run by volunteers. You know, we got a school in Heritage Center that's right in front of the barber poly theater that gets all the history of town. If you wanted to look up a picture of what I look like.
• 11:21
  Unknown: Don't do this, but in high school, in a yearbook in 1987 it'd scare you, but it's, it's in there somewhere. So we're, we're all about a lot of history, and, you know, this or that, and it's our volunteers that, you know, keep that stuff alive. Yeah, it really is. It's, it's, it's better than Mayberry.
• 11:38
  Unknown: We're bigger, and we got a lot more stuff going on.
• 11:40
  Jessica Bowser: Well, you know what I will say? I was in the visitor center more than once during my time in Big Stone Gap, and every time I walked in, there were people who were hanging out like it just felt like a community gathering place. And every time I walked in the door, everybody welcomed me and wanted to know how my stay was so far. And what did you get to do yesterday, and what are you planning to do today? And everybody had some sort of advice they wanted to give me about where else I should go, or they were showing me pictures in their phone of the eagle that they saw over the river yesterday. Everybody was super friendly. And the other thing about the visitor center that we haven't mentioned yet, Steve, is that it was part of a movie set for the movie Big Stone Gap.
• 12:20
  Unknown: Yeah, yeah, you can come into the visitor center and sit at the two booths that were representations of the diner that was a mutual pharmacy in the movie, you know, Big Stone Gap, you know, one of the restaurants in town is actually in the building that the mutual pharmacy was, that's right beside of, you know, the visitor center, and is now a shared workspace, Actually, where I sit today. And then the street level is a restaurant, and then the upper level is now turned into apartments. Downtown apartment.
• 12:46
  Unknown: Have several Airbnbs and things downtown to stay at and just really some unique stuff. Yeah,
• 12:54
  Jessica Bowser: let's talk about lodgings. What are some of the lodging options in town? Well, we
• 12:58
  Unknown: have the Jesse Lee RV part and campground, if you can get a space, because it, it stays full almost year around, there's, there's five or six spaces a weekend or something that's there. But certainly for our big events, any of this lodging you'd want to, you know, want to get done, you know, quickly and get it, get get booked quickly, because you and you'd want to stay, like you said, a week or more, there's camping and cabins at natural tunnel. You drove back and forth, actually, from there. So, you know, that's a very short, very beautiful drive quality.
• 13:27
  Unknown: Inn and Suites is our only chain motel that's, you know, right here, close to town. But within 15 minutes there's another two or three, you know, hotels with lodging and stuff in it. I think we're up to about 40 Airbnbs in the area now. Is it that many?
• 13:45
  Unknown: Yeah, we we have about 10 more, I think, coming on here in the next, you know, couple of weeks and stuff so, but I think we were up to about 30 that was on our list before. They range anything from a tiny house, sort of opportunity to a huge house, to some above street level apartments that are been converted into Airbnbs.
• 14:09
  Jessica Bowser: Yeah, I noticed like some of them were historic properties. Some were like, on a farm. Some were like, above the old is it the bus terminal or train terminal?
• 14:19
  Unknown: Yeah, old bus terminal?
• 14:19
  Unknown: Yes, great. Bus Station. Yeah,
• 14:23
  Jessica Bowser: like, unique, just really unique stuff. And I thought that was kind of cool.
• 14:26
  Jessica Bowser: So, yeah, there's a lot of lodging options,
• 14:30
  Unknown: three actually being built right now. The Lonesome Pine motor company actually come to town to service Packards that the northern businessmen have brought along with them when they come into the area. So that building is actually being redone now, and there's going to be three Airbnbs above it when it gets finished. So wow, fall, that should be that should be ready to go too.
• 14:57
  Jessica Bowser: Your adventure starts in the heart of Apple.
• 15:00
  Jessica Bowser: Atcha, hike and bike through breathtaking mountain landscapes. Paddle peaceful rivers winding through hidden hollows or cast your line in crystal clear streams teeming with trout craving something truly unique. Hop on an ATV and ride the rugged spearhead trail some of the best in the east.
• 15:18
  Jessica Bowser: Take a scenic drive through winding back roads. Explore the Grand Canyon of the south at breaks park or go on an elk tour and witness these majestic creatures roaming free. Whether you're looking for heart pounding outdoor adventure or peaceful moments in nature, the heart of Appalachia has got what you need, dine, celebrate, shop and rest well in the heart of all things fun, the heart of Appalachia, Virginia's treasured southwest, begin your mountain escape by clicking on heart of Appalachia in your show notes.
• 15:49
  Jessica Bowser: Steve, we're getting pretty close to the end of this episode, but before we hop off, I wanted to ask you, are there any upcoming events in Big Stone Gap that listeners should know about. Oh
• 16:03
  Unknown: yeah, I would like to name our top three this year.
• 16:07
  Unknown: Fourth July is on a Friday. So we always ramp it up for Fridays and weekends. We always do the fourth July on the fourth but we have a whole day of activities that go all the way all day through town. Really, it's all week long. We have some stuff going on that ends down at Bullitt park with fans all evening long, and a huge firework show. Uh, we'll be really ramping it up for this year's show down there on on September 27 the last Saturday in September, we have a state cook off to where competing people come from all over the South for a chance to win a golden ticket to the World Championships in Texas for cooking steaks. So you can actually buy a ticket to taste all of those steaks. So every competitor cooks a steak for the patrons too. You can actually buy a ticket and taste all of that, those great steaks that people are cooking, they also cook some auxiliary stuff and make some drinks and things too, that people can buy a ticket to to taste. And during that same day, we start that off, while they're cooking, with a grizzly run, which is a obstacle race around our three mile green belt. So a lot of people come and get dirty and muddy and, you know, end up in a big tub of ice water at the end of the race on in September. So that's a big event. But our, our biggest event that we'd like to invite everybody to is the blue highway festival. The Blue highway festival, we actually won the the new Festival Award from the International bluegrass Association, and it's on October the eighth through the 12th. And so it's some of the best bluegrass music, heritage mountain music that you'll ever hear. We we put together a great lineup. This year's lineup, we're getting ready to announce it probably around May 1, and it's all put together. We're just kind of signing some more contracts and stuff. That's one of the can't miss things that you do. The leaves are changing to that point in time. So for all your listeners, the outdoors is beautiful as pretty as it gets here, and great, great music. That's that's certainly a time you don't want to miss. Big Stone Gap.
• 18:19
  Jessica Bowser: I think that's a time I plan on coming back, because the way you talked about it, it just felt like this was the must do Festival. It's that time of year when it's absolutely gorgeous outside and and the hiking is superb, so I think I might have to come back for that and to entice our listeners a little bit more, we're going to do a really exciting giveaway. Do you want to share the details?
• 18:41
  Unknown: Yes, I'd like to give your listeners the opportunity to win two five day blue highway tickets for for that whole week.
• 18:51
  Unknown: So
• 18:51
  Jessica Bowser: in order to be entered into the giveaway for these two tickets, there's several things you can do. First of all, you can go to your show notes and click on Send Jessica a text message and let me know what you loved about this episode, and that will automatically be an entry into the giveaway. And then you're going to want to keep an eye on social media, on the podcast, Instagram and Facebook pages, because we will do another promotion on there where you can share the episode and tag your friends and earn more entries that way too. But Steve, do you want to mention like the retail value of those two tickets
• 19:29
  Unknown: at the gate? That'll be over a $600 value for the five day ticket. That's
• 19:34
  Jessica Bowser: fantastic. I'm super excited about this giveaway. Steve, so good luck to everybody. I start sending me those messages right now, because we're going to do the drawing. Probably. Do you think we can do the drawing in a couple of weeks? Steve, because I want to give people a chance to, like, book their lodging and make their plans. We certainly can. Okay, that would be superb.
• 19:52
  Jessica Bowser: All right, thank you so much for your generosity. Steve, that's really exciting. I. We're gonna wrap this up here. Do you have any parting advice for future visitors?
• 20:05
  Unknown: Well, just come and come and visit us and get your own very, very own hug so that you'll know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about these mountains and how beautiful it is here. We we have a lot of information. I mean, visit Big Stone gap.com follow us on Facebook and Instagram, you know, for for the people that are thinking about Blue highway and trying to get in that that drawing, go to Blue highway fest com. You can see some of the past lineups that we've had and and some of the pictures and stuff from from that. Just keep up with us. If we can ever get you here, you're going to be asking me how to buy property. So, you know that's the that's the main thing, because once you get that hug, you can't go away. I find
• 20:46
  Jessica Bowser: that really funny, Steve, because the first time you and I met, you were already trying to sell me a house down there. And you're not wrong. It is a wonderful town, and I cannot wait to get back to Big Stone Gap. Steve, thank you so much for being a guest on Virginia outdoor adventures.
• 21:03
  Jessica Bowser: Adventure on Virginia Outdoor Adventures is inspired by and supported by listeners like you, which is why your messages and feedback means so much to me.
• 21:14
  Jessica Bowser: You can text me directly by clicking on Send Jessica a text message in your show notes, I answer questions, respond to comments and share your feedback on the show. Never miss a new episode. Sign up for my email newsletter and receive my listener resource guide with the top podcast episodes, a Virginia outdoor bucket list and exclusive brand discounts for my listeners. Click on newsletter, sign up in your show notes, or visit Virginia outdoor adventures.com thanks for listening until next time.
• 21:48
  Jessica Bowser: Adventure on you.