Delightful and Unexpected:…read more My family and I thoroughly enjoyed our time at Wolf Creek Indian Village and Museum. We pass it every other year on our Ohio/Pennsylvania vacations, and we always joke about visiting. This year we decided to give it go. We were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed Wolf Creek. The staff is super friendly and our tour guide was exceptionally educated on the site, and you could easily tell that she enjoyed her job. This is a fun and relatively inexpensive way to spend 2 to 3 hours and learn fascinating Native American history

Saturday, April 20th, 2024 (Earth Day Weekend) Showed up…read morelate afternoon so guided tours were over but self guided tour and indoor museum available however we just shopped at the gift shop. The staff were very friendly, professional, knowledgeable, eager to help and had answers for any and all questions. The pottery was stunning, the book selection was great, fun gifts, cool collectible items, handmade jewelry etc We highly recommend this experience to any and all

This location was listed in the Paranormal Trail for West Virginia. Like many others, we tried to…read moreschedule a tour but had no luck. We did end up driving by to try and check it out but you can't really see anything but overgrowth. There is a locked chain length fence with a sign and what looks like a dilipadated trailer home, but after seeing the location for myself I'm glad no one responded because there is no way a tour here could possibly be worth what they are asking.

My local West Virginia friend started out the day by driving north from Princeton to Beckley. Along…read morethe way, I mentioned the abandoned theme park attraction and we made a pitstop. I saw that this was a theme park in a West Virginia tourism video on YouTube, but the property fell into disrepair over the years and itself became a tourist attraction in its own right. Some say it's haunted as well. Entrance into the property is by appointment only. When we arrived at the property, we saw the gate locked up with an aged sign posted with a phone number. We assumed that it would be open for tourists, but ended up disappointed. We wandered around the property for a bit and peeked inside the fencing and saw a lot of stuff were in disrepair and felt like it was a bit more than unusual. Too bad they don't fix it up to be a reputable theme park for the local West Virginians who want to come to visit again. With that said, we spent 10 minutes touring around outside the fencing until we decided to call the number on the signage. We did not receive anything. It kept ringing for a minute or so and then we just hung up. After that, we just got back in the car and made our way northward to Beckley. The drive to get us here was exciting as it could be but as it turned out, it was anything but. The disappointment factor was off the charts that day but we assumed it was going to be open and not chained up. We should have called ahead but we didn't. Lesson learned to call ahead to make arrangements. The overall experience here at the abandoned theme park at Lake Shawnee was very interesting and quite off to be in path for sure. It is not something that you would want to see in everyday travels, whether you're visiting or are on business. Since I did not have any history on the theme, park itself, I resorted to finding any information online and it was quite a learning experience to hear that the theme park was in need of desperate face left. But nobody seemed to care over the years and decades, so it just sat there like this and it tends to be a tourist attraction all by itself, willingly or unwillingly. For the most part though, the abandoned theme park at Lake Shawnee is pretty much haunted. As far as I was concerned at least. Even the signature Ferris wheel looked like it seen better days for sure, even though it was relatively brand new in the 1980's. And so, if you decide to venture into the abandoned amusement park in southern West Virginia, consider making arrangements first to get access to the grounds ahead of your arrival. Maybe 10-14 days beforehand so you get full confirmation prior to arrival. Don't be a bonehead like i was. Well, maybe. And so, if you enjoy this kind of thing, consider making a road trip and come out to the abandoned theme park. While there is a lot of dark history surrounding the theme park and definitely is haunted, the park is generally okay during the day like many places out there. Just don't venture at night unless you don't want to get spooked easily. Unless you enjoy that kind of thing like ghost hunters do. The abandoned theme park at Lake Shawnee is located in the outskirts of Princeton, West Virginia. I learned about the cost of admission when I was writing this review and it was sizable. There is an official website where you can book tours online. There's a day time tour and a ghostly overnight tour too. Do so at your own risk with either that you do. I assume major credit cards are accepted if you pay online. They probably accept cash in person too. As far as parking goes, I'm sure there's parking options available when you get to the site itself. As long as they know you are confirmed and are coming, there's plenty of parking here for your benefit. I doubt that there is any viable public transportation that would be readily available for anybody and everybody to come from Princeton or anywhere in between. You would have to have your own personal vehicle or rent one for the most convenient experience. Then there's always Uber or Lyft at your disposal, but best believe that it could be a very expensive ride because of the remote location that you're trying to reach. With that said, if you're really into ghost stories and theme parks that have seen better days, you're more than welcome to enjoy this place. Too bad it's not in-use anymore. Otherwise, it would have been something to look forward to share memories with family or friends. 3.0 stars for the overall experience. Too bad I didn't get a chance to check out the tour. On the flip side, I don't want to scare myself to sleep either. Support local! C

I'm amazed sometimes by the amount of knowledge one person can accumulate in a lifetime about one…read moreparticular subject. That's what I was thinking during my guided tour of Historic Smithfield, a plantation house turned museum and farm. Our tour guide knew so much about the American Revolution, George Washington, the Civil War and Virginia in general. Plus so much more! He knew everything about the families and enslaved individuals who lived in that house. It was a very informative visit. I'm not even sure you can visit the inside of Smithfield without a guided tour. I should say, though, that although the guided tour was informative, I would suggest it only for adults who might have an interest in history, or people who don't have a short attention span. They cover a lot of information here, and even I was feeling like I was melting down at the end of the tour, because it was just so many facts and we went at a slow pace. So, would I recommend a guided tour for kids? Absolutely not. At least, not my kids or any kids I know. But I would suggest you let kids explore the grounds outside, and say hello to the livestock roaming the fields, and run around the garden. There's a small gift shop with a few snacks and water. The gift shop is also where you purchase admission. There's lots of parking in the gravel parking lot.

What a gem tucked away right next to the VA Tech campus! This is a must visit for history buffs…read morewhen in the area! No longer owned by the APVA, it's a private foundation now I believe, the house has been painstakingly restored and features many pieces owned by the original family. Take the tour! The on-site historian who gives them is clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the history of not only the plantation and Home, but the area as well. I could have listened to her for hours! This is reasonably priced ($8 for adults, but we found a groupon!) and the gift shop has some nice and locally made choices.

What a great way to see what Mount Airy has to offer. A fun sight seeing experience. Our driver,…read moreMike was excellent and a lot of fun. Learning about Andy Griffith and his life was interesting. I would definitely recommend the tour to everyone!

Two Words: Bring CASH! If you book in advance by calling them, they may neglect to tell you…read morethis! We arrived an hour before our scheduled tour, checked in, toured the "courthouse," used credit card at the gift shop for souvenirs, and had ice cream at Ellie's which is also on site, and I paid using American Express there. The squad car portion is cash or check...and your driver expects to be tipped in cash, too. Consider this your warning and notification as you exit the vehicle. BRING CASH !!

I wasn't sure what to expect but the lady at the visitor center said this was a MUST DO!…read more This was a house that looked like Miss Gertrude stepped of and walked outside and you snuck in. Everything is in its place and authentic to how she had it decorated. The two ladies at the back entrance were super friendly and a wealth of knowledge. We enjoyed walking through and looking at the decor and photos. Amazing art work from around the world. I loved hearing the stories and I could just feel a sense that I had met Gertrude while walking her halls. Thank you for allowing us to stop by right at closing!!

The Gertrude Smith House is located just outside of Downtown Mt. Airy. It is within walking…read moredistance or you can drive as they have a parking lot or you can park in the street. The 1903 house is on the National Register of Historic Homes. Admission is free to tour the Victorian house as that was part of Gertrude Smith's will that admission be free. Ms. Smith left her house by will to be kept as a museum and established a trust to care and maintain it. The house is kept as if it were in the early 1900s with furniture; artwork and decor. The tour begins in the back of the house and I was greeted and given some history of the house and Ms. Smith. The house is self guided so you can spend as much time inside as you'd like. The rooms have information to read about or you can just look at the contents from the antiques; photographs; artwork; furniture; etc. I highly recommend visiting this historic gem if you are in the MT. Airy area.

Final resting place of the most famous conjoined twins, this cemetery in Mount Airy is adjacent to…read moreUS-74. The twins were born in 1811 and traveled the world. They were joined by a bridge of cartilage. Why are they here? Well, during a trip to North Carolina, they simply fell in love with the state (Who wouldn't?) and in 1843, married Adelaide and Sarah Anne Yates, sisters native to the area. The brothers ran the plantation and lived together until tensions between Adelaide and Sara Anne forced them to set up separate households in the town of White Plains. Between their two marriages, the brothers produced a staggering 21 children. They passed in 1874 and their wives were buried next to them in their final plot. Some 1500 descendants of the twins still reside in the area. The grace is easy to find behind the church. There is parking in the church parking lot. And if you're staying at the neighboring RV park, there is an unmarked path to the cemetery. [Review 14983 overall, 485 of 2021, number 2849 in North Carolina.]

This was a fascinating find for me, as I am (by marriage, albeit not by blood) related to the…read morefamous Bunker twins. My grandfather's aunt (i.e., my great-great aunt) Elizabeth "Betty" Lee-Jones married (I believe) Chang Bunker's grandson, Franklin Davis Jones, in nearby Surrey, North Carolina in 1904. (The couple moved to Idaho. He died in the early Sixties; she died in 1973.)