I like this library tucked away on a hill above the main road in Grundy. It was nice and quiet when…read moreI visited. The staff were friendly and helpful. Wifi was easy to access and worked. They have a good assortment of used books for sale at great prices. I bought a bunch! The kids area is separated enough that noise from the kids doesn't travel to the other side of the library. The kids section is cutely decorated with neat wood furniture. I took a few photos that show this. They have an assortment of chairs to chooses from including some comfy business chairs. There is a section with current magazines and newspapers in a quiet corner of the library.

A beautiful view and then a sober reminder of another dark time in America's past…read more The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Leonard Woods, a black coal miner from Jenkins, KY, was lynched near here on the night of 29-30 Nov. 1927. Officers had arrested Woods for allegedly killing Herschel Deaton, a white man from Coeburn, VA, and had taken him to the Whitesburg, KY jail. On the day of Deaton's funeral, a white mob numbering in the hundreds broke into the jail and brought Woods close to this spot, where they hanged, shot, and burned him. No one was ever arrested. In the aftermath, at the urging of Norfolk editor Louis Jaffé, Norton's Bruce Crawford, and other journalists, VA Gov. Harry F. Byrd worked with the General Assembly early in 1928 to pass the nation's first law defining lynching as a state crime." In the months that followed, Virginia's newspapers debated not only the brutality of the killing but also the complicity of silence in both states, making the Woods case one of the rare Appalachian lynchings that forced a sustained, public reckoning with racial violence in the mountain South. It is marker number XB-27 and it was erected in 2021 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. There is plenty of room to stop here, read the marker and think about those events. [Review 76 of 2026 - 1522 in Virginia - 25266 overall]

Located along US 23 (Business), the marker points out some of the history of the town in which it…read moreis located. It is near the Wise Town Hall. There is some room to stop and read the marker, just be aware of the traffic. It's a neat spot and I recommend visiting Wise. It reads, "The town of Wise was known as Big Glades when a post office was established here in 1850, Before being incorporated as Wise in 1926 it was also called Gladeville and Wise Court House. Since the creation in 1856 of Wise County, named for Henry Alexander Wise, governor of Virginia (1856-1860), the town has served as the county seat. During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought here between Union and Confederate troops on 7 July 1863. After the Civil War the town grew because of the expansion of the railroads and the increased mining of coal in the region. The current county courthouse was completed in 1896." In the late 1800s the town developed a small but lively commercial district around Main Street, where hotels, law offices, and general stores served travelers moving between the Kentucky line and the Clinch Valley. When the University of Virginia's College at Wise opened in 1954, it transformed the town into an educational center and anchored a new cultural life that reached far beyond the coalfields. Mid‑twentieth‑century Wise also became a regional medical hub, with clinics and small hospitals drawing patients from scattered mountain communities that lacked reliable care. Today the town's elevated setting gives it a cooler climate and a quieter pace than many nearby coal towns, a reminder of its older identity as a highland crossroads rather than an industrial camp. [Review 77 of 2026 - 1523 in Virginia - 25267 overall]

This museum is a local history museum located across from Jenkins High School in the mountains of…read moreKentucky. If you are looking for something to do indoors, this place beautifully show the history of Letcher County this is the place. The Museum was dedicate din May 1998. It has been authentically restored 1911 era train station. It has many displays of photographs of historical and modern coal mining, actual mining tools along with many mining and railroad accruements. Truly a unquie experience and a unique destination

Friendlest staff or any post office in the county. Always helpful with any situation.read more

Just across the border from Kentucky into Virginia, this marker points out the importance of the…read morearea here in reference to the Civil War. The marker reads, "Pound Gap probably was named for nearby grain pounding mill. Christopher Gist, returning from the Ohio River where he surveyed land for the Ohio Company, crossed the gap in 1751. During the Civil War, Pound Gap gained strategic importance as a gateway between Virginia and Kentucky. Union Col. James A. Garfield (later president) and his brigade forced the gap from the Kentucky side on 16 March 1862 after a skirmish with Confederate forces under Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall. Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan forced it from the Virginia side, capturing and destroying property in Kentucky." Long before the Civil War made it a military chokepoint, Pound Gap served as one of the few practical crossings through the tangled high ridges of Pine Mountain, guiding traders, drovers, and families moving between the upper Kentucky River valley and the Clinch River country. The route hardened into a wagon road in the nineteenth century, and its steep approach on the Kentucky side became notorious for mud, washouts, and the slow, echoing climb of freight teams. After the war, the gap's importance shifted to resource extraction, with timber crews and early coal operators using it as a corridor to reach remote hollows on both sides of the state line. In the early twentieth century, the arrival of automobiles forced state engineers to carve a more reliable roadway across the crest, replacing the old rutted track with a graded highway that finally made year‑round travel possible. Today the overlook near the gap offers a sweeping view into Virginia, a reminder that this narrow pass has always been less a boundary than a hinge between two mountain worlds. It is marker number XB-7 and it was erected in 1999 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. [Review 75 of 2026 - 1521 in Virginia - 25265 overall]