US-23 is a busy highway, running 61 miles across western Virginia from the Tennessee state line…read morenear Weber City north to the Kentucky state line near Pound. This section is a four lane highway and so there is plenty of room to stop and read this marker that points out you are crossing from Wise County into Lee County. The Lee County side reads, "Lee County, the western-most county in Virginia, was formed from Russell County in 1792; a part of Scott County was added later. The county is named for Henry 'Light- Horse Harry' Lee, governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 and former American Revolutionary War officer. Cumberland Gap National Historic Park lies partly in Lee County and in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Cumberland Gap was the principal route through the mountains that Native Americans and early European settlers used to travel to the west and the south. The county seat is Jonesville." The Wise County side reads, "Wise County was formed in 1856 from Lee, Scott, and Russell counties. It was named for Henry Alexander Wise who was governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860. The county seat is the town of Wise. After the Civil War the town of Wise grew and the county's industry expanded because of the growth of the railroads and the increased mining of coal in the region. Noted novelist John Fox Jr. lived in the town of Big Stone Gap here for a portion of his life and wrote the best-selling novels 'The Trail of the Lonesome Pine' and 'The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come.'" It is marker number Z-189 and it was erected in 2003 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. [Review 78 of 2026 - 1524 in Virginia - 25268 overall]

This marker helps us remember an important ally to students and the community. It reads,…read more "Principal of the East Benham High School, 1934-60. Matthews taught math and coached ball teams. The students were children of employees of Wisconsin Steel Coal Company. Joseph Matthews and his wife Ruth were leaders in black community and bought food, clothes, and supplies for the needy. Presented by Students, Faculty, and Friends and the Ky. African American Heritage Commission." There is unfortunately no other information I can find about Mr. Matthews [Review 13460 overall, 779 of 2020.]

Located adjacent to the Coal Museum, this marker recalls a local music hero who made it…read more It reads, "Carl Martin was born in Big Stone Gap in April 1906. He grew up in Southwest Virginia and moved to Knoxville, Tenn., in 1918. He performed regionally on the guitar, mandolin, bass, and violin at coal camps, dances, and in traveling shows. In 1930, Martin's string band recorded two instrumentals for Vocalion, released under the band name "Tennessee Chocolate Drops" for a black audience and the "Tennessee Trio" in the white old-time music series. Martin moved to Chicago in the 1930s, recording blues and performing with such artists as Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red until serving in World War II. The 1960s folk revival brought Martin before new audiences. He died in Detroit on 10 May 1979." Country music, if you're a fan: https://youtu.be/r508dnuveuU [Review 13455 overall, 774 of 2020.]

Located along US 23 (Business), the marker points out some of the history of the town in which it…read moreis located. It is near the Wise Town Hall. There is some room to stop and read the marker, just be aware of the traffic. It's a neat spot and I recommend visiting Wise. It reads, "The town of Wise was known as Big Glades when a post office was established here in 1850, Before being incorporated as Wise in 1926 it was also called Gladeville and Wise Court House. Since the creation in 1856 of Wise County, named for Henry Alexander Wise, governor of Virginia (1856-1860), the town has served as the county seat. During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought here between Union and Confederate troops on 7 July 1863. After the Civil War the town grew because of the expansion of the railroads and the increased mining of coal in the region. The current county courthouse was completed in 1896." In the late 1800s the town developed a small but lively commercial district around Main Street, where hotels, law offices, and general stores served travelers moving between the Kentucky line and the Clinch Valley. When the University of Virginia's College at Wise opened in 1954, it transformed the town into an educational center and anchored a new cultural life that reached far beyond the coalfields. Mid‑twentieth‑century Wise also became a regional medical hub, with clinics and small hospitals drawing patients from scattered mountain communities that lacked reliable care. Today the town's elevated setting gives it a cooler climate and a quieter pace than many nearby coal towns, a reminder of its older identity as a highland crossroads rather than an industrial camp. [Review 77 of 2026 - 1523 in Virginia - 25267 overall]

About five miles out from Abingdon and well worth the drive down the country roads to get there,…read moreWhite's Mill and mercantile is a restored/working 18th century water mill that produces the best coarse ground yellow grits I have ever had (my first taste was the White's Mill Grit Cakes served at Abingdon's Bone Fire Smokehouse and I've never looked back/had better since). The goodness of those yellow grits are the main reason I'm writing this review, but the mill itself and the adjacent "mercantile" country store (where you can find said grits available for purchase stored within a chest freezer alongside other White's Mill milled grains (like cornmeal, flour, white grits etc.). I've never seen anyone attending the mill any time I have visited thus I cautiously wander around inside with at least one buddy in tow as the interior looks every bit as old as it's 1790 establish date (the 1866 restoration notwithstanding). From the entrance level there are rooms both upstairs and down, the lover level revealing a cool living room type of space complete with a hearth/fireplace and a lot of huge, aged and complicated-looking gears and other oddly quiet antiquated mechanics in motion. It feels like entering a portal to another time; braving the creaking stairs within the mill is an adventure in and of itself. The mercantile is an old house-turned-store next to the mill stocked windows-to-walls with goods, wears, and--let's be real--junk. If you like being overwhelmed with multiple rooms full of stuff and sifting through troves seeking treasures, get thee to this out-of-the-way country store. Aside from grain, jellies, and jams, you can find all kinds of antiques and other random oddities that only rural bric-a-brac magnets like this place can accrue. As a final testament to the boss quality of White's Mill yellow grits: when I moved to Japan I brought two bags with me that I keep squirreled away in the freezer for days when I have a fever for the flavor. To cook coarse yellow grits: boil 4 parts water and add 1 part grits. Stir every few minutes for about 25 minutes until they reach a naturally creamy consistency. Experiment to find your flavor by adding seasoning, cream/milk/water, cheese, other stuff etc. -or- let them cool and make polenta-like grit cakes :)

A beautiful view and then a sober reminder of another dark time in America's past…read more The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Leonard Woods, a black coal miner from Jenkins, KY, was lynched near here on the night of 29-30 Nov. 1927. Officers had arrested Woods for allegedly killing Herschel Deaton, a white man from Coeburn, VA, and had taken him to the Whitesburg, KY jail. On the day of Deaton's funeral, a white mob numbering in the hundreds broke into the jail and brought Woods close to this spot, where they hanged, shot, and burned him. No one was ever arrested. In the aftermath, at the urging of Norfolk editor Louis Jaffé, Norton's Bruce Crawford, and other journalists, VA Gov. Harry F. Byrd worked with the General Assembly early in 1928 to pass the nation's first law defining lynching as a state crime." In the months that followed, Virginia's newspapers debated not only the brutality of the killing but also the complicity of silence in both states, making the Woods case one of the rare Appalachian lynchings that forced a sustained, public reckoning with racial violence in the mountain South. It is marker number XB-27 and it was erected in 2021 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. There is plenty of room to stop here, read the marker and think about those events. [Review 76 of 2026 - 1522 in Virginia - 25266 overall]

Just across the border from Kentucky into Virginia, this marker points out the importance of the…read morearea here in reference to the Civil War. The marker reads, "Pound Gap probably was named for nearby grain pounding mill. Christopher Gist, returning from the Ohio River where he surveyed land for the Ohio Company, crossed the gap in 1751. During the Civil War, Pound Gap gained strategic importance as a gateway between Virginia and Kentucky. Union Col. James A. Garfield (later president) and his brigade forced the gap from the Kentucky side on 16 March 1862 after a skirmish with Confederate forces under Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall. Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan forced it from the Virginia side, capturing and destroying property in Kentucky." Long before the Civil War made it a military chokepoint, Pound Gap served as one of the few practical crossings through the tangled high ridges of Pine Mountain, guiding traders, drovers, and families moving between the upper Kentucky River valley and the Clinch River country. The route hardened into a wagon road in the nineteenth century, and its steep approach on the Kentucky side became notorious for mud, washouts, and the slow, echoing climb of freight teams. After the war, the gap's importance shifted to resource extraction, with timber crews and early coal operators using it as a corridor to reach remote hollows on both sides of the state line. In the early twentieth century, the arrival of automobiles forced state engineers to carve a more reliable roadway across the crest, replacing the old rutted track with a graded highway that finally made year‑round travel possible. Today the overlook near the gap offers a sweeping view into Virginia, a reminder that this narrow pass has always been less a boundary than a hinge between two mountain worlds. It is marker number XB-7 and it was erected in 1999 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. [Review 75 of 2026 - 1521 in Virginia - 25265 overall]

US-23 is a busy highway, running 61 miles across western Virginia from the Tennessee state line…read morenear Weber City north to the Kentucky state line near Pound. This section is a four lane highway and so there is plenty of room to stop and read this marker that points out you are crossing from Lee County into Scott County. The Lee County side reads, "Lee County, the western-most county in Virginia, was formed from Russell County in 1792; a part of Scott County was added later. The county is named for Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 and former American Revolutionary War officer. Cumberland Gap National Historic Park lies partly in Lee County and in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Cumberland Gap was the principal route through the mountains that Native Americans and early European settlers used to travel to the west and the south. The county seat is Jonesville." The Scott County side reads, "Scott County was formed in 1814 from Lee, Washington, and Russell Counties. It is named for native Virginian Gen. Winfield Scott (1786-1866) in recognition for his victories during the War of 1812. Scott later became commander of the United States Army. Natural Tunnel, about 850 feet long, is located here and was formed more than a million years ago. The legendary country music Carter Family resided in the county. The original Carter Family trio, Alvin Pleasant "A. P." Carter, Sara Dougherty Carter, and Maybelle Arrington Carter, first recorded music in the 1920s. Gate City is its county seat. [Correction: Maybelle Carter's maiden name was Addington.]" This is marker number Z-134 and it was erected in 2003 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. [Review 79 of 2026 - 1525 in Virginia - 25269 overall]