Roanoke And New River Valleys Virginia Manuscripts

"Virginia's story is not complete until the accounts of the people west of the Blue Ridge are given their due. As more scholars are attraced to the region, the publication of this manuscript guide to five counties will offer them a source for documentary materials. The contiguous bloc of counties are Botetourt, Roanoke, Craig, Montgomery, and Floyd, all part of an area called Southwest Virginia, within the watersheds of the James, Roanoke and New rivers ... -- Introd.

Five Star Trails: Roanoke and the New River Valley showcases 40 hikes in the mountains, valleys, and Piedmont of Western Virginia. The guide includes an array of treks reflecting the area's superlative scenery, from wild waterfalls in the New River Valley to highland wildernesses of the Jefferson National Forest, historic paths along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and waterside strolls beside Smith Mountain Lake. It is authored by the Southeast's most experienced outdoors writer, Johnny Molloy. Hikes in this book range from just under 2 miles to over 10 miles, creating opportunities for hikers of all ages, and will accommodate your desires for hikes of multiple lengths, depending on mood, time, and company. Trail configurations are diverse as well--including out-and-back hikes, loops, and balloon loops. Hike settings vary from developed county parks to the back of beyond.

From the time of early settlement in Virginia, water-powered mills played a primary role in the state's economy. This work provides an overview of grain milling in Floyd County, Virginia, from 1770 to the present day. Topics covered include the difficulties involved in identifying early mills, the importance of mill site selection, water wheel types, laws regulating mills, the decline of milling and physical remains of abandoned mill sites. The main body of the book provides individual histories of 140 grist, flour, and feed mills, a few of which also processed wool. The histories are based primarily on oral histories, title deed records, and local newspapers. More than 100 photographs and maps supplement the text, and tables provide production figures for various mills from industrial censuses of 1850, 1870, and 1880.

While contact with explorers, missionaries, and traders made a significant impact on natives of the Eastern Woodlands, Indian peoples cannot be solely understood from the historical record. Here, in Societies in Eclipse, archaeologists combine recent research with insights from anthropology, historiography, and oral tradition to examine the cultural landscape preceding and immediately following the arrival of Europeans. The evidence suggests that native societies were in the process of significant cultural transformation prior to contact.

The contributors to this collection argue that traditional views - of ethnic and cultural isolation, of German clannishness and Scots-Irish individualism - contain a kernel of truth but are far too restrictive and simplistic.

The archaeological focus on a single geographical area offers an opportunity to present projectile point typology as a microtechnology even though some of the types have widespread distributions. The area of the Middle Potomac River Valley presents a physical artefact collection for a view of prehistory. This volume, which includes several hundred images of the investigation, artefacts and archaeological research compiled and recorded from over 30 years of work in the area, includes: -an overview of the Middle Potomac River Valley archaeology including the peoples and sites; -new data and interpretations for the lithic technology of the area; and -classification and typology of artefacts including the usage of projectile point, axe, celt, drill, and knife implements. This work will be of great interest to prehistory archaeologists, especially those working in the Middle Atlantic region of the United States.