Today was a travel day by design, so we didn't have any intention of stopping anywhere. We hoped to reach Roanoke, Virginia, but as so often happens, that plan went by the wayside when we passed a "historic interest" sign around 2:00 p.m. which sent us heading off the Interstate and northward for 8 miles. By the time we regained the Interstate it was 4:00 p.m. and we opted for Wytheville, Virginia, for our afternoon camp, which was only 42 miles away.
All day long we cruised Daniel Boone's Wilderness Trail which runs along the southern border of Virginia where it meets the northern border of Tennessee. A good percentage of the time we kept to two-lane Route 58 as it wound its way up hill and down dale very circuitously through the Blue Ridge Mountains. There was barely enough room to drive the thirty-one foot RV on the ultra narrow roads, let alone stop anywhere to shoot photos. But it often broke my heart to miss so many beautiful vistas.
By noon we were approaching Interstate 81, and we had already figured out that we would need to jump on that divided highway for the balance of the day if we wanted to reach Roanoke by cocktail hour. Cruising the two-lanes is so very rewarding visually, but as far as making any real distance they're not so good. We picked out the little town of Bristol, Virginia, for lunch as it lay just adjacent to the interstate. Then, since we had not spent more than a very few minutes in Tennessee yesterday, we decided after lunch to take a side trip as far south as the town of Blountville, Tennessee, to check out its Old Town section which the guide book proclaimed was worth seeing. From Blountville we were able to jump onto the Interstate and head northeast.
About an hour later we came across the sign announcing the existence of a town called "Saltville," which lay only eight miles north of our route. Since we had such an incredible time on our salt mine tour in Kansas, we decided that we needed a break from battling the 18-wheelers about then, and we took the off-ramp and headed for Saltville.
Our trip to Saltville turned out to be VERY educational, much more than we would have predicted. Our destination in Saltville, as advised by the roadside sign, was the "Museum of the Middle Appalachians." Here, we found everything from an extensive rocks and minerals collection, to some nicely done Native American "woodland culture" depictions and artifact displays. They even had their own mounted fossil Mastodon, which towered over both of us.
But we found that the most incredible information we encountered involved Saltville's, well, SALT! From the museum's guidebook I learned that: "The town of Saltville dates back to 1753, the date that the very first land grant in the valley was issued in the name of King George II of England."
But the history of the salty area goes back much further, back some 14,000 years to when Woolly Mammoths, Mastodons, giant ground sloths, and musk oxen ruled the area. This was brought to light when Colonel Arthur Campbell was digging a well to extract salt in 1782 and found giant bones. The find was so interesting that Thomas Jefferson was contacted to come take a look. Jefferson would later write about the find in his 1785 book, "Notes on the State of Virginia."
Paleo Indians also were interested in the salt and their presence has been discovered dating back to the year A.D. 1000.
The Saltville historic period began in 1748 when the Patton Expedition -- that would later discover the Cumberland Gap -- made note of the existence of salt in the valley. One member of the expedition, Charles Campbell, applied for and received a patent on 330 acres which would later pass to his son William. William would later die during the American revolution.
Arthur Campbell, a cousin of William Campbell, was appointed guardian of the Williams family and estate, and he immediately began plans for commercial development of the property in Saltville. So it was that in 1782 Arthur began the first salt-manufacturing operation in the valley. Later family conflicts would cause this operation to be taken up by other family members.
But the greatest significance to all the salt in the valley was in 1861 when the Civil War broke out. Realizing that salt would be needed in huge quantities by troops in the field, both sides set about protecting their salt deposits and seeking to destroy the deposits of the other side. In this endeavor the North was highly successful. Through overland activities as well as seaborne blockades, the South saw its access to salt severely diminish as the war progressed. By 1864 only Saltville and very small operations in Alabama and Georgia were still being kept out of the hands of the Yankees.
U.S. Grant was perhaps the first Union General to realize that capturing the salt works at Saltville would severely cripple the South's ability to wage war. After becoming commander of Union armies in the west, he continually pleaded with his commanders in Kentucky and East Tennessee to capture the valley. But it wasn't until Grant had been made Commander of all Union armies in the field in 1864, that he planned a spring offensive against four targets, one of which was Saltville.
Three of the four targets, Richmond, Atlanta, and Mobile were successes. But the Saltville offensive failed, perhaps because it was the most heavily fortified objective in the Confederacy. A second attack was made on Saltville by Union forces in October of 1864, but it also failed. Finally, in December of 1864, Saltville was finally captured by Union forces.
I recently read a very fine book about the Civil War that I picked up on our 2014 trip to the southern states. I found it in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where John Brown pulled his famous -- and unsuccessful -- raid. The book's title was "Starving the South," by Andrew Smith. Until I read that book I had always imagined that the Civil War had been won by a tiny core of genius-like commanders, brilliantly executed military maneuvers, and stoically dedicated soldiers. To a degree this was of course true. But equally important, as documented in Smith's book, was the fact that the war was lost by the southern Confederacy, not so much by losing on the field of battle, but being out-produced by northern factories.
Salt was just one of those commodities that Billy Reb could not produce in sufficient quantities to satisfy both civilian and military needs, and troops in the field would suffer for the lack of it just as much as they suffered from lack of sufficient weaponry, food, clothing, and a hundred other vital components of warfare.
So, our sojourn off the Interstate today was valuable and informative. I only wish we could have stayed longer. Unfortunately, we stayed until they were ready to close the doors, and then we had to say our goodbyes. The docent there, one Harry Haynes, was, as Concetta described him, more of a talker than me. But we two had some rousing conversations on genealogy and history of the area. Thanks Harry for a super time!
There was one small negative incident that we encountered as we were parking the rig near the museum. A set of low-hanging telephone wires snagged our crank-up antenna and nearly ripped it off the roof of the RV. We hadn't been using it anyway for the wiring from inside the rig to the outside connection had deteriorated so badly that it just rotted off. But now the whole structure of the antenna is severely "tweaked" and the darn thing will have to be replaced. Oh, well!
After leaving the museum we backtracked the eight miles we'd come north from Interstate 81, and then made our way east again until we reached the KOA at Wytheville, Virginia. I was rather astounded at the price they demanded, even with our KOA card, but it was already after 5:00 p.m. and I had no desire to look further. It's a nice park with expertly-done level spaces. There is lots of nice room between rigs, and I wouldn't dissuade anyone from coming here. Still, I think it's about $10.00 overpriced.
Tomorrow it's supposed to rain. Wow! What a surprise. We have plans to visit our daughter-in-law's Alma mater, Virginia Tech, just down the road from here. I suppose we won't need sun for that. Later, well, it's just over 300 miles or so to Colonial Williamsburg, and we're headed in the right direction. Since it rained on us ferociously in 2014, we're hoping for a day of sunlight this time. Cross your fingers.
So until we meet again, we wish you Happy Travels!
Note: Photos 2 and 4 are from the web as I was unable to shoot my own today. Photo 5 is from Amazon.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment