This marker is on the corner of the Grayson County Courthouse and points out the history of this…read morecity. It has the same text on both sides. It reads, "This place became the county seat of Grayson County in 1850; the first case was tried in the newly erected courthouse in 1851. The present courthouse was built in 1908. Independence was incorporated in 1934." Independence began taking shape in the early nineteenth century as settlement pushed into the highlands of what had recently become Grayson County, and it was officially named to reflect the young nation's patriotic spirit. The town became the county seat after Greenville lost the role, a shift driven by Independence's more central location and growing civic activity. In 1908, the community built the landmark Classical Revival courthouse, designed by Frank P. Milburn, which has anchored the town's identity for more than a century. Independence also played a role in regional commerce as a stop along early roads linking th New River valley to the North Carolina line. The Civil War didn't sweep directly through what is now Independence and no major engagements took place in the immediate area. Grayson County was geographically tucked into the highlands, away from the primary Shenandoah Valley campaigns and the major east‑west troop movements. When I was here, the marker was in very poor condition. Maybe they cleaned it up in the last couple of weeks since my visit? [Review 889 of 2026 - 1540 in Virginia - 26070 overall]

This marker is on the corner of Lee Highway and the appropriately named Withers Road. It's easy…read moreenough to spot and read while you wait at the traffic light. Marker K-37 tells us about Robert Enoch Withers, "Robert Enoch Withers was born in Campbell County on 18 Sept. 1821. After graduation from the medical department at the University of Virginia in 1841, he practiced medicine in Campbell County and Danville until 1861. During the Civil War Withers achieved the rank of colonel in the Confederate army. He served as the lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1874 to 1875 and in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Withers was the U.S. Consul at Hong Kong from 1885 to 1889 and he died nearby at his home, Ingleside, on 21 Sept. 1907." It was erected by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 2002. Withers became one of Virginia's most prominent postwar Conservative Party organizers, using his newspaper to rally opposition to Radical Reconstruction. He was also a leading national figure in Freemasonry, ultimately heading the Knights Templar in the United States. His wartime injuries at Gaines' Mill were so severe that doctors doubted he would survive, yet he recovered enough to resume mounted duty within months. Federal officials later noted his unusually humane treatment of Union prisoners in Danville, a reputation that helped shield him from postwar reprisals. Late in life, he wrote "Memoirs of an Octogenarian," offering a reflective, often opinionated account of nineteenth-century Virginia politics and society. [Review 895 of 2026 - 1546 in Virginia - 26076 overall]

Located at an intersection next to an office and the post office, this marker gives a tragic story…read morethat was worth the research. Marker number KC-10 was erected by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 2000 and it reads, "Nearby was the home of James and Lovice Sage, whose five-year-old daughter Caty was abducted in 1792. Fifty-six years later her brother Charles located her in eastern Kansas after a Wyandot Indian told him that a woman, named Yourowquains, with similar features to his lived with the Wyandots. Another brother, Samuel, investigated and confirmed that she was their sister. Through an interpreter, Yourowquains told them that a "white man" abducted her. She lived with the Cherokee, before they gave her as a present to the Wyandots, who adopted her. She had three Wyandot husbands and died in Jan. 1853." Caty Sage's story is one of those frontier-era tragedies that stayed alive in local memory because it was so unusual and so unresolved for so long. She grew up in a remote part of Grayson County at a time when small children could disappear without a trace and families had almost no way to search beyond their own valley. Her disappearance became a kind of quiet legend in the Elk Creek community, with her name passed down through family lines long after anyone expected answers. What makes her story remarkable is that she lived an entire adult life inside Native communities, fully integrated, fully accepted, and known by a name that carried meaning only within that world. By the time her brothers finally found her in Kansas, she had lived through multiple migrations, marriages, and cultural shifts, and the life she described to them was one shaped far more by Indigenous identity than by the childhood she barely remembered. She died in Kansas in 1853, still known by her Wyandot name and still living among the people who had adopted her. [Review 893 of 2026 - 1544 in Virginia - 26074 overall]

It's one of those tunnels that feels way bigger and longer once you're actually driving through it…read more You enter this huge opening cut into the mountain, and then suddenly you're surrounded by concrete and darkness with the lights stretching out ahead of you. It's about a mile long, so you're in there long enough for it to feel like you're actually going through the mountain rather than just passing under it. And when you come out the other side, the daylight and mountain scenery hit you all at once. It's a pretty cool experience if you've never been through a mountain tunnel before. This trip we went through it at night time so we couldnt see any of the gorgeous scenery, this time through. But it is definitely a must see!

The Big Walker Mountain Tunnel is on Interstate 77 in Bland County, Virginia. It is a LONG tunnel…read morethrough the Appalachian Mountians. This two lane, fast moving, tunnel is 4,229 feet long or 1.289 miles long. Driving through it the length was noticeable and that is why I snapped a photo of the light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't until I went to write this review that I thought what would happen if there was an accident inside the tunnel. I'm not claustrophobic but in reading of the number of closures because of massive pileups mid-tunnel I'm going to have to put the possibilities of accidents out of my mind before we travel through this tunnel next year. Overall for a tunnel that was built in 1972 it appears in good shape. I know we will continue to travel through this tunnel annually as the alternate route is far worse. Three stars for being a good route from North Carolina to Kentucky. I can't help but deduct a couple of stars for the tunnel being two lanes and in possible need of extended closure if an accident occurs.

The current Grayson County Courthouse in Independence is a solid, practical government building…read morethat does exactly what a modern rural courthouse is supposed to do without trying to compete with the 1908 historic courthouse a short distance away. This building was completed in 1979, designed by J. Everette Fauber & Associates, and it follows a straightforward Modernist civic architecture style. Red brick, clean lines, no ornament, and a layout meant for offices rather than ceremony. Inside, you'll find the working heart of the county's government including the Clerk of the Court, Circuit Court, General District Court and many administrative offices that keep the county running. It is not a building you visit or tour for architectural drama. Instead, it is efficient, easy to navigate, and clearly built for function over flair, which fits Independence just fine. You'll find the drama and ornamentation at the historic courthouse nearby. [Review 891 of 2026 - 1542 in Virginia - 26072 overall]

Saturday morning in Wytheville and the Wythe County Courthouse was sitting in a thick fog that gave…read morethe whole block a muted and quiet feel. It made the 1902 Classical Revival building look even more stately than usual as I walked the grounds. The courthouse was designed by Frank P. Milburn, the same architect behind a long list of early twentieth-century civic buildings across the south. I've seen dozens of his works. His signature style shows up here in the symmetry, the brick and stone detailing, and the confident proportions that make a small county seat feel a little more important. The courthouse has handled the usual mix of local criminal and civil matters over the decades but nothing that has ever turned into a statewide headline, which fits the quiet vibe of the place especially on a fogged in weekend morning when the offices are closed and you can wander without interruption. I did not spot a Confederate memorial anywhere on the property and that's because the monument was removed in 2020 after a vote by the county board, leaving the grounds feeling a bit more open and less cluttered. Wytheville itself takes its name from George Wythe, the Virginia jurist and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the town has produced a few well known residents including Edith Bolling Wilson who was born just a block away and later became First Lady. [Review 899 of 2026 - 1550 in Virginia - 26080 overall]

The 1908 Grayson County Courthouse in Independence has that proud early twentieth-century presence…read morethat feels both formal and handmade, its Classical Revival design by Frank Milburn* giving it the symmetry, brick massing, and columned entry that Virginia counties favored when they wanted to project stability. Grayson County itself was named for William Grayson, a US Senator from Virginia in the 1780s and the town's name, Independence, was chosen to mark the nation's spirit after the revolution. It hasn't always been the county seat. That honor originally belonged to Greenville, but won the seat in the early nineteenth century as settlement shifted westward and the community grew into a more central civic hub. By the time I visited on Friday afternoon, the courthouse was closed, which actually made the experience better. With the sunset hitting the brick and no one around, I could walk right up to the building and appreciate the details without interruption. The grounds still have the expected and familiar Confederate monument, but since this building is no longer the active courthouse, it feels more like a historical artifact than a statement. Today, the structure serves administrative and community functions rather than full judicial operations, and wandering the quiet grounds made it easy to admire the architecture without the bustle of modern court traffic. [Review 886 of 2026 - 1537 in Virginia - 26067 overall] *I've seen many of Milburn's courthouses including the 1904 Wilkes County in Washington GA, 1907 Rockingham County in Reidsville NC, 1909 Swain County in Bryson City NC, 1914 Rowan County in Salisbury NC, Boyd County in Catlettsburg KY and more than 250 other major buildings across the South.

Along side a curvy mountain road, this marker is at the border between Pulaski County and Wythe…read moreCounty. The marker is on two sides. On the one side, "Pulaski County. Formed in 1839 from Wythe and Montgomery, and named for Count Casimir Pulaski, killed at the siege of Savanna, 1779. New River flows through this county." On the other side, "Wythe County. Formed in 1789 from Montgomery, and named for George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence. New River flows through this county." The county seat of Pulaski County is Pulaski. It was formed on March 30, 1839 from parts of Montgomery and Wythe counties, becoming the 87th county of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was named for Count Casimir Pulaski, an exiled Polish nobleman who fought during the American Revolution as part of George Washington's army. The county seat of Wythe County is Wytheville. It was formed from Montgomery County in 1790. It was named after George Wythe, the first Virginian signer of the Declaration of Independence. During the Civil War the Battle of Cove Mountain was fought in the county. The road is narrow and there is no room here to stop safely but there was no traffic when I was here. [Review 13829 overall, 1151 of 2020, number 1262 in Virginia.]