Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305030013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's the mountains, they replied, placing them first by a wide margin over 20 other amenities.
The mountains were No. 1 in every age, gender, ethnic and income group except people over 65 years old and people making less than $10,000 per year. (Those groups liked the mountains, too, but they chose the friendliness of the valley's people as its No. 1 amenity.)
Scott Little, a physician, was among those who were polled and who chose the mountains as their favorite thing about the valley.
"They get to be old friends," he said in a telephone interview. When his children were young, Little recalled, he would give a quarter to the first one to spy the Mill Mountain Star as the family drove back into the valley after vacationing elsewhere.
The first sighting of the mountains, whether from an automobile or through the tiny window of a descending airplane, is a homecoming experience that countless Western Virginians have spoken of fondly.
And no wonder. There is something about those ridges and shadowed valleys that is profoundly engaging to the human psyche. There is elegance in their contours, the hint of adventure over every ridge and around every bend of their trails. Not even the encroachment of suburbia can completely domesticate a mountain foothill or steal all of its natural beauty.
The mountains suggest continuity across the great span of time. They speak of the Earth's vastness and power. They have been associated with gods since antiquity and in cultures all over the world. Mountains have long inspired painters and writers, some of whom have invested the hills with human qualities.
"They are not piles of rock, they are ancient spirits," says a character in Denise Giardina's "The Unquiet Earth."
"I knew it myself when I worked in the mine. I could hear the mountain above me groan and cry out, mourning its losses, screaming with pain when we cut away its bones. I knew when the roof fell and took a man it was no accident but the mountain lashing out like a wounded animal."
The hills were home to generations of Native Americans and later provided a haven for disaffected lowlanders who populated isolated "hollers" and helped to found the cities - like Roanoke - that have grown up in the valleys and beside the rivers.
It seems that people who can't live in the mountains like to live near them. Dr. Stephen Kaplan of the University of Michigan psychology department touched on the subject in a 1984 article about the role of "intangibles" in "understanding the human relation to place."
He reported in "Human Sciences Press" that "life satisfaction" depends heavily on "residential satisfaction" and that an important part of residential satisfaction is "ease of access to nature."
Perhaps surprisingly, there has been little research into the specific appeal of the mountains. Everybody knows the appeal exists, but it hasn't been exhaustively quantified by the academics and scientists.
Investigators do know something about the appeal of landscapes in general, however, and they know that mountains are regarded as among the most inviting landscapes of all.
The suggestions of "refuge (or safety)" is one of the desired characteristics of landscapes, according to a 1987 report in "Landscape Journal." Others include "prospect," meaning view; "room to roam"; and a "sense of familiarity."
Thomas Herzog, psychology professor at Michigan's Grand Valley State College, was author of the report. He based it on a study of subjects' preferences among photographs of a variety of mountain, desert and canyon vistas.
"The mountain categories were best liked," he wrote.
That was no surprise to Fred Buhyoff, a Virginia Tech forestry professor who has studied landscapes. He said certain varieties not only evoke "consistently positive" responses, but are sufficiently compelling to offset "visual deficiencies" such as power lines.
"Mountains seem to be the No. 1 thing," he said in an interview. "It seems to indicate there's something inherent there that is important to people."
"They have a restfulness about them," said Norfolk-born Nancy Simmons, another Roanoke Valley Poll respondent who selected the mountains as what she liked best about the area. She has lived in the valley since her teens.
"If you compare them to the flat land down around the beach," she said, "there is a restful, quieting feeling about them. I just like their being around. I like to come home to them."
So does Jim Woltz, who lives on Bent Mountain. He appreciates mountain living both personally and as a real estate dealer who knows firsthand the value of what he calls "view tracts."
"Scenery sells," said Woltz, the president of Woltz & Associates Inc. "That's the bottom line. Over the years it has been apparent that a piece of property with an expanded view sells faster and for more money than a place without a view."
"They're more expensive to build and to service in terms of roads and utilities," said urban geographer Susan Brooker-Gross of Virginia Tech. "It takes an upscale population to afford some mountainside homes."
The cost of developing hilly sites also can hinder the recruitment and expansion of industry. Tim Gubala, Roanoke County's economic development director, calls it a "challenge" to him and his counterparts in other localities.
He and the others say the Roanoke Valley has counterbalancing advantages, including lower living and business costs.
There's also what Sparks calls "the mountain work ethic."
"Our people are very high producers," he said.
It's a regional thing, according to Richard Stiles, economic development specialist with the Asheville, N.C., Chamber of Commerce. He relates it to the strong crafts tradition of the region.
"There is an innate ability to build and produce," he said. "We'll match mountain labor with anywhere in the world."
by CNB