Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 4, 1995                   TAG: 9506060001
SECTION: TRAVEL                    PAGE: D-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A HISTORY WRITTEN IN COAL DUST AND IRON ORE

In the late 1870s when coal and iron ore deposits were discovered throughout the region, land speculators and the coming of the railroad had a significant, albeit short-lived, impact on Southwest Virginia.

Southwest Virginia Museum, Big Stone Gap

Northern businessmen dreamed of turning Big Stone Gap into the Pittsburgh of the South, and in its heyday, the village was a vital cultural area with its own newspaper, hotels, banks and schools.

It didn't last, however, and many of the memories are presented in the galleries of the Southwest Virginia Museum.

The museum mansion was built in the 1880s as a home for Rufus Ayers, a Virginia attorney general. The exterior limestone and sandstone came from local quarries, but doesn't begin to rival the red oak interior for grandeur.

The story of Big Stone Gap's boom and bust era is documented, along with profiles and personal items of prominent local citizens at the turn of the century. Tools, household furnishings, quilts, clothing and athletic equipment show the fun, beauty and hard work of an earlier era.

Special programs are offered on a regular basis year round. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays; 1-5 p.m. Sundays. The museum is closed Mondays after Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Admission fee. P.O. Box 742, Big Stone Gap, Va., 24219. (703) 523-1322.

Harry W. Meador, Jr. Coal Museum, Big Stone Gap

Harry Meador was a tireless advocate of the coal mining industry and collected and catalogued many of the items in the museum that bears his name. Other artifacts were contributed from private homes and collections in southwest Virginia.

On the front lawn sits a Longwall miner, one of the first pieces of automated underground equipment. Coal mining paraphernalia, old photographs, tools and trinkets of the trade are displayed inside.

The building was originally the library of Appalachian author John Fox Jr. who lived down the street. Later a community center, it's the spot where the bus picked up the local boys going off to war.

Although Meador was a vice president with the Westmoreland Coal Co., that corporation's chairman of the board made this remark at the museum's dedication in 1982: "I think Harry Meador would like best to be remembered as a coal miner, with every proud attribute that goes with that name."

Historic Crab Orchard Museum and Pioneer Park, Tazewell

The Crab Orchard Archaeological Site was documented a couple of decades ago when the Virginia 19 and U.S. 460 road was expanded to a four-lane highway. Crustaceans and mastodon remains estimated at millions of years old were found, along with American Indian artifacts some 10,000 years old.

A real-life diorama of the Cherokee settlement presumed to be there has been created at the Historic Crab Orchard Museum. Farming implements and machinery used by colonists who ventured into this once wilderness area are on display in the museum and on the grounds of Pioneer Park.

Situated on five of the 25 acres owned by the nonprofit museum are 13 historic log and stone buildings. Many of these primitive structures were dismantled, moved and reassembled here on a grassy knoll outside of Tazewell.

A trappers cabin, circa 1760, a farm house complex from the early 1800s and several of the specialty outbuildings common to early America - apple house, smoke house, spring house, corn cribs - stand as a proud testament to the rugged spirit of trappers, families and trail blazers who made their way down the Appalachians two centuries ago.

A restored Model-T Ford, one of two known replicas of McCormick's first reaper and a horse-drawn hearse reside in the horse-drawn equipment building. Period crops, such as corn, beans, pumpkins and squash are raised on the property. On special occasions, interpreters in period costume demonstrate skills and trades of early settlers.

Through September 1, the special exhibit will feature World War II memorabilia.

Open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays 1-5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Sundays and Mondays November- March. Groups welcome. Admission fee. Route 1, Box 194, Tazewell, Va 24651. (703) 988-6755.