Virginia doesn?t seem like a very weird place on the surface. Home of eight presidents, cradle of high-tech industry and government contracting ? what could be more normal than Virginia?
At first glance there?s nothing odd about the rolling farmland of the Shenandoah Valley, the manicured horse farms of the Piedmont, or the gentle Blue Ridge Mountains. But the authors of Weird Virginia: Your Travel Guide to Virginia?s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets are not the types to stay on the surface. They?re seasoned investigators of the unknown, the uncanny, and the just plain weird.
Jeff Bahr, Troy Taylor and Loren Coleman have combed the state for all kinds of oddities to include in this new book in the Weird U.S. series. They have uncovered forbidden love among the Jamestown colonists, ancient Indian legends, and haunted roads. While the book includes hoary old chestnuts like the Headless Brakeman (any state with a railroad has one of those) and UFO sightings, there are plenty of entries peculiar to the Old Dominion. One section is devoted to the ?shadow government? supposedly maintained in Virginia to take over the country in time of national disaster. The rumors contain a nugget of truth ? beneath the FEMA facilities on Mount Weather in Bluemont is an extensive underground facility codenamed ?High Point.? This secret bunker was made public after TWA Flight 514 crashed on Mount Weather in 1974. Although the authors don?t mention it, Mount Weather is also supposed to be haunted ? by the victims of Flight 514.
Another creepy chapter in Virginia?s history concerns its tragic prominence in the eugenics movement in the early 20th century. Doctors at institutions for the ?feebleminded? in Staunton and Lynchburg were leaders in the movement to sterilize the ?unfit.? Virginia has its heroes, too, including clairvoyant Jeanne Dixon, whose museum is in Strasburg, and Virginia Beach resident Gary Duschl, who has constructed the world?s longest gum wrapper chain at 9.1 miles long and counting.
If you?re interested in cryptozoology, Virginia is home to several elusive beasts. Scotland may have Nessie, but we have Chessie, a giant sea serpent that from time to time emerges from the murky depths of Chesapeake Bay. Surely it?s just a matter of time before digital photography verifies once and for all the existence of Chessie, along with the Wampus cat and the skunk ape. But then life will be that much less mysterious.
Richmond, Northern Virginia and the coast have their share of the strange, but the backbone of weird must surely be U.S. 11 between Winchester and Wytheville. Foamhenge, Miniature Graceland, a 14-foot tall Johnny Appleseed, a building shaped like a coffeepot, Luray Cavern?s Stalacpipe Organ, a ghost stagecoach from Civil War times, all are just a short detour away if you?re making a road trip through the Shenandoah Valley.
The authors? enthusiasm for the unknown enlivens Weird Virginia. It?s easy to willingly suspend one?s disbelief when the storytellers so clearly have put their hearts into their tales. I do have two quibbles with this book, however. First, the book isn?t really a ?travel guide.? Many of the features are defunct, on private property, or, shall we say, intermittent. But explicit directions are given for a lot of the attractions, and locations can be deduced for some of the others.
Last, the authors include many stories, legends, and hauntings from the District of Columbia in what should be a book solely about Virginia. Isn?t there?s enough weirdness inside the Beltway for Washington to have its own book?
Details
Weird Virginia: Your Travel Guide to Virginia?s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
Sterling Publishing Co., NY ? 2007
ISBN 1-4027-3942-7
$19.95
By Jeff Bahr, Troy Taylor, and Loren Coleman
Source: http://thenewdominion.com/?p=1214
