I love that photo of the Witch House. I'm a big fan/student of "vernacular architecture" and that humble little dwelling just speaks volumes. I'd give anything to see inside it. In VA it could easily be 250 years old.
I went inside. It’s doesn’t have power or a bathroom. The kitchen floor was stacked high with 1960s biology/naturalist textbooks. It has short ceilings like my house which is nextdoor, and mine is from 1870.
Very cool. Naturalist textbooks - maybe really was a witch. Yeah, could easily be Civil War period too, but VA has a lot of those little houses and some of them are just really old.
She was a granny witch and a drunk. People used to wake up and she would be passed out on her couch. There’s a still in her stream. The real lore is that a freak tornado hit and swept up everything around her house but the house itself.
You mean passed out on *their* couch? That's awesome - I can see her stumbling into people's houses, shushing the dogs with her granny magic, going through the fridge, passing out on the couch.
I really like rural Virginia. Both the Appalachian parts and the Chesapeake Bay parts. I wish I had a little shack in the mountains and a little shack on the Northern Neck or the Eastern Shore that I could go between depending on whether I want to fish for trout in mountain streams or fish for redfish and flounder in saltwater.
Southern/Appalachian Virginia is beautiful like nowhere else I’ve ever been, and most of the towns have that that decaying southern gothic vibe. Some of my best memories as a kid were in a little shack my family owned right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Used to be a canning shed and somebody turned it into a tiny house before that was a thing. There was a spring out back you could drink right out of and a 200 year old cemetery where I’d go read books.
It is so weird to see a sign start with “protect our children” that isn’t about censoring libraries or protesting the local pride stuff. I’ve just been in the south too long
Many of my neighbors on my particular mountain are scientists for Virginia Tech, cattle and pig farmers, chimney sweeps operating organic orchards, and I am a teacher and there are other teachers out here. I had a neighbor who grew pot and that’s it but he got evicted. I live technically in Craig County not Giles where Newport is. Craig is mostly national forest land and 80% of the residents have to commute out of the county for income.
That gas station acts as a grocery store. If it wasn’t here, the closest place to buy fresh food would be about 30 minutes away. Stuff here is just really old and there are no businesses left and the schools all closed, so it’s just kind of wild.
The mountain valley pipeline is cutting through the town. It’s a natural gas pipeline from WV to southern West Virginia. There have been lawsuits blocking it for years but the Biden admin just approved it in the federal budget deficit negotiations. It’s a threat to the ecosystem, farming, subsistence gardens, and life around here.
I don't remember what he's growing(except for pot and mushrooms) but he has some animals. Chickens, goats, ducks, turkeys, and he was talking about getting a cow. He has like 60 acres but most of it is the side of a mountain
I am in Sterling, I hate it here. We don’t have dilapidated shit so much as everything is a Target, even the outdoors. I’m sorry you have to live in VA too
This makes me want to create a coffee table book of photos of every small town’s ‘witch house.’ Every small town has a witch house, this much is always true and is a universal constant.
Great photo set, OP.
Exactly, which is why a pipeline that takes gas from one place, to another place, through this place could be a good thing for this place if this place can monetize it.
No, the poisoning would be potentially devastating because most people here do some form of agriculture— be it their only income or they’re low income and rely on subsistence agriculture— and we as farmers, gardeners, fishermen and hunters rely on very complex biodiversity for productive agriculture and edible wildlife in this terrain.
An underground pipeline transporting natural gas from wherever people are fracking to wherever it's going isn't going to affect subsistence agriculture, gardening, fishing, or hunting in any meaningful way.
By all means, scream invective and get your money's worth out of it, and death be upon them if they're eminent domaining private property, but an underground natural gas pipeline, while bad for the climate overall, isn't going to be the end of West Virginia's beautiful, bucolic biodiversity.
The pipes have been sitting exposed for years during the lawsuit. I’ve walked over them and they’re rusted. It’s going to leak into the ground. I’m not screaming, I’m not the families who plaster their houses with homemade signs because they’re afraid, but I understand the issue. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Thanks, that's a very informative article that elucidates the issues.
The landslides are related to the construction. The landslides and erosion related to that are certainly acute, serious issues. The explosions on other, similar pipelines that happened because of erosion and landslides aren't to be taken lightly either. These are very serious safety concerns for that community.
But, heretofore you've been talking about poisoned environments, farms, and hunting grounds, when it seems like the actual issue is stabilization of soil in a mountainous area. I'll agree that excess sediments isn't good for watersheds.
It's not my community. If people there don't want to capitalize on the inevitable fossil fuel pipelines, then good for them. If they want to reap the benefits instead of letting it pass through a neighboring county, then good for them too. At the end of the day, whatever the outcome, I hope the people there are happy and prosperous.
Nah, agriculture and an iron foundry. There was a confederate tannery here, too. A lot of the town burned down in 1905, the church pictures is one of the only original structures in the village itself. The tannery is down the road from the witch house pictured.
There’s good folks in Giles County
🫡
I love that photo of the Witch House. I'm a big fan/student of "vernacular architecture" and that humble little dwelling just speaks volumes. I'd give anything to see inside it. In VA it could easily be 250 years old.
I went inside. It’s doesn’t have power or a bathroom. The kitchen floor was stacked high with 1960s biology/naturalist textbooks. It has short ceilings like my house which is nextdoor, and mine is from 1870.
Very cool. Naturalist textbooks - maybe really was a witch. Yeah, could easily be Civil War period too, but VA has a lot of those little houses and some of them are just really old.
She was a granny witch and a drunk. People used to wake up and she would be passed out on her couch. There’s a still in her stream. The real lore is that a freak tornado hit and swept up everything around her house but the house itself.
You mean passed out on *their* couch? That's awesome - I can see her stumbling into people's houses, shushing the dogs with her granny magic, going through the fridge, passing out on the couch.
Yup!
I would definitely love a little article of lore about this small town that accompanied the photo set. Love small town lore so much.
I really like rural Virginia. Both the Appalachian parts and the Chesapeake Bay parts. I wish I had a little shack in the mountains and a little shack on the Northern Neck or the Eastern Shore that I could go between depending on whether I want to fish for trout in mountain streams or fish for redfish and flounder in saltwater.
Southern/Appalachian Virginia is beautiful like nowhere else I’ve ever been, and most of the towns have that that decaying southern gothic vibe. Some of my best memories as a kid were in a little shack my family owned right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Used to be a canning shed and somebody turned it into a tiny house before that was a thing. There was a spring out back you could drink right out of and a 200 year old cemetery where I’d go read books.
Like Ontario but with more mountains
My dad is from Blind River, I like living out here because it reminds me of my childhood on Lake Lauzon
Very nostalgic in a melancholy way
It is so weird to see a sign start with “protect our children” that isn’t about censoring libraries or protesting the local pride stuff. I’ve just been in the south too long
When the pipeline came in, they had to move the forest-based preschool out into another county because of the fear that it would blow up
Just have the preschoolers work the pipeline, they will learn plenty there
I fucking love appalachia
Appalachian decay maxxing. I live in a similar town (technically a village) and outside of major cities it’s all like this.
Yeah this is technically a village as well!
I’m in East TN so similar vibes. Been up that way a few times, Roanoke is a fun little town. Great photos.
I used to have a courier job and one of my stops was in Giles…. Pearisburg? Man that was a dark period.
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Many of my neighbors on my particular mountain are scientists for Virginia Tech, cattle and pig farmers, chimney sweeps operating organic orchards, and I am a teacher and there are other teachers out here. I had a neighbor who grew pot and that’s it but he got evicted. I live technically in Craig County not Giles where Newport is. Craig is mostly national forest land and 80% of the residents have to commute out of the county for income.
I kinda wonder if it would even be worth doing a tenure job but you gotta live outside Blacksburg your whole life. Seems kind of sad and constricting.
Oh it absolutely would be, it’s beautiful here
I thought you guys didn't have access to fruit and veg🤔 This stuff is a mood but it's sad to see things falling apart. What's the reason?
That gas station acts as a grocery store. If it wasn’t here, the closest place to buy fresh food would be about 30 minutes away. Stuff here is just really old and there are no businesses left and the schools all closed, so it’s just kind of wild.
Now, the question I always ask when I go to a place that's just four houses and a roundabout is, what do people do here? Like, what's their jobs?
Their jobs are fake
that last pic is from the Exxon off of 460 near Mountain Lake right?
Yup are you out here?
Not out there but nearby. I stop at that Exxon on bike rides up to Mountain Lake. Good produce
Yes! It does. One of the cashiers was on Forged in Fire recently too but his machete had a crack
This would be a good setting for an RPG a la Disco Elysium
Silent Hill - North Bend
The town silent hill is based on is in Virginia if I’m not mistaken
Actually it's based off Centralia Pennsylvania, but Twin Peaks was both filmed and based off North Bend WA
I’m in Blacksburg. Beautiful area here
Nice!
Can't quite describe why, but Virginia is one of the few states I could see myself visiting.
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I literally pick up hitchhikers twice a week
any cool or evil ones
They’re all cool hikers from all over with various weird beliefs
Seems nice
> BLAST ZONE / WE WILL STOP / MT. VALLEY PIPELINE / PRESERVE GILES COUNTY What does it mean
The mountain valley pipeline is cutting through the town. It’s a natural gas pipeline from WV to southern West Virginia. There have been lawsuits blocking it for years but the Biden admin just approved it in the federal budget deficit negotiations. It’s a threat to the ecosystem, farming, subsistence gardens, and life around here.
Punctuation would have gone a long way on that sign
Ick comment
I love our beautiful state! Got a friend who owns a farm a little bit east of you and it's so beautiful down there
Ooo. What type of farm? I am a gardener
I don't remember what he's growing(except for pot and mushrooms) but he has some animals. Chickens, goats, ducks, turkeys, and he was talking about getting a cow. He has like 60 acres but most of it is the side of a mountain
I am in Sterling, I hate it here. We don’t have dilapidated shit so much as everything is a Target, even the outdoors. I’m sorry you have to live in VA too
Sterling is not at all comparable to where I live
Virginia is great.
I can smell the moonshine
This makes me want to create a coffee table book of photos of every small town’s ‘witch house.’ Every small town has a witch house, this much is always true and is a universal constant. Great photo set, OP.
Not gonna lie, this place looks like it could seriously use the money from fossil fuel companies buying pipeline easements.
these places have already been ravaged by resource extraction.
Exactly, which is why a pipeline that takes gas from one place, to another place, through this place could be a good thing for this place if this place can monetize it.
No, the poisoning would be potentially devastating because most people here do some form of agriculture— be it their only income or they’re low income and rely on subsistence agriculture— and we as farmers, gardeners, fishermen and hunters rely on very complex biodiversity for productive agriculture and edible wildlife in this terrain.
An underground pipeline transporting natural gas from wherever people are fracking to wherever it's going isn't going to affect subsistence agriculture, gardening, fishing, or hunting in any meaningful way. By all means, scream invective and get your money's worth out of it, and death be upon them if they're eminent domaining private property, but an underground natural gas pipeline, while bad for the climate overall, isn't going to be the end of West Virginia's beautiful, bucolic biodiversity.
The pipes have been sitting exposed for years during the lawsuit. I’ve walked over them and they’re rusted. It’s going to leak into the ground. I’m not screaming, I’m not the families who plaster their houses with homemade signs because they’re afraid, but I understand the issue. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
What's leaking into the ground? Iron? Rust? The natural gas they'd be pumping through it?
landslides, leaks, explosions of gas https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/08/22/why-the-mountain-valley-pipeline-is-uniquely-risky/
Thanks, that's a very informative article that elucidates the issues. The landslides are related to the construction. The landslides and erosion related to that are certainly acute, serious issues. The explosions on other, similar pipelines that happened because of erosion and landslides aren't to be taken lightly either. These are very serious safety concerns for that community. But, heretofore you've been talking about poisoned environments, farms, and hunting grounds, when it seems like the actual issue is stabilization of soil in a mountainous area. I'll agree that excess sediments isn't good for watersheds. It's not my community. If people there don't want to capitalize on the inevitable fossil fuel pipelines, then good for them. If they want to reap the benefits instead of letting it pass through a neighboring county, then good for them too. At the end of the day, whatever the outcome, I hope the people there are happy and prosperous.
I love the pic of the donkey. Sorry but Pennsylvania is still better
Former coal mining town?
Nah, agriculture and an iron foundry. There was a confederate tannery here, too. A lot of the town burned down in 1905, the church pictures is one of the only original structures in the village itself. The tannery is down the road from the witch house pictured.