A Day Away By Mike Steely
Sometimes a side trip during a journey to somewhere else ends up being more interesting than the final destination. In our many years of traveling on business and for pleasure, my wife and I have discovered some unexpected jewels of places that surprised us and left lasting memories.
On a trip to Washington, D. C., we once took a side trip to Schuyler, Virginia, the birthplace and hometown of Earl Hamner, creator of “The Waltons.” There, we found his childhood home and a museum about the television series nestled in a former schoolhouse.
If you are a fan of the television series, you probably recall several mentions of “Rockfish” as a nearby town. We were curious and asked the museum staff if it actually existed. In fact, the community did and still does, so we took a drive and found, to our surprise, that there were only a few houses, no actual town, and all that remained was a small, abandoned rural post office building. But it was worth a visit, interesting, and filled a hole in our trip well.
Old Washington in Rhea County was an important ferry crossing and thriving community in early East Tennessee history. There, Judge David Campbell, a relative of the founder of Campbell’s Station, claimed land and settled. In the 1830s, it had a brick courthouse, several stores and became the first county seat.
Today, the little community and the remains of the old Washington Ferry crossing aren’t much more than a wide place in the road. A long bridge now links it to the east and little remains of the former important place. Just off Highway 30 and west of Decatur, the former courthouse town has the grave of the founder, Judge Campbell, and his son-in-law, Thomas John Van Dyke. There’s a third grave there, said to be Campbell’s favorite horse.
An Alabama surprise for us was the Ave Maria Grotto, a lifelong work of miniature structures created by a Catholic monk at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman. The 125 miniature buildings take up four acres in an abandoned quarry.
It’s open to the public and about 50 miles north of Birmingham. A walk through the miniature village is interesting and educational.
Middlesboro, Kentucky, a town built inside a meteor crater, has several interesting things, including the entrance to the Cumberland Gap Park. But most people miss one of the oddest buildings in our country.
The Bell County Coal House is located near the corner of 20th Street and Lothbury Avenue in Middlesboro. The Bell County Coal House is a unique landmark constructed in 1926 with over 42 tons of local bituminous coal. Now the odd building is the home of the Bell County Chamber of Commerce.
The Standing Stone Monument is just off I-40 in Monterey, Tennessee, and was once a tall monument in the shape of a dog or wolf. It apparently was a Native American boundary marker. There’s a small park there with a historical marker. Don’t confuse it with Standing Stone State Park, miles away to the north, that has no such marker.
A family road trip can be improved with a side trip on the way to or from your destination. It breaks the long trips up into little bites and, surprisingly, can leave nice memories.
