Rediscovering the simple life

Peaks of Virginia
Rediscovering the simple life

Related links:
• Learning a new way to work • Making space in the mountains
• From textiles to technology • Mount Rogers Partnership Region Map

By Lisa Garcia
Rediscovering the simple lifeTwelve years ago, Jeff Patrick left behind a life in Florida to come back to his hometown of Damascus, a hamlet of 900 people just a few miles north of the North Carolina border. Patrick had been making $40,000 a year building swimming pools in Tallahassee, Fla. It was a good living, he says, but not a good life. "I got tired of not being able to ride my bike to work, not being able to walk out my back door to fish," he says.

Jeff Patrick (left), and his father, Dave, pass out advice to hikers at their outdoors store in Damascus.
Photo by Wayne Scarberry

Today, Patrick, 34 works with his father, Dave, 56, at Mt. Rogers Outfitters, the backpacking supply store his father owns. He and his wife, Jeannie, have a daughter, Presley, who is 5. The family holds dear the simple life of a small town: low crime, community involvement and the feeling that everyone knows everyone else. "When I cross the road, I usually wave at five people," Jeff Patrick says. "I leave my doors unlocked at home. I leave my keys in the car. That’s an asset."

The loyalty of people like the Patricks is what makes the fabric of communities in the six-county Mt. Rogers region. The countryside is scattered with towns like Damascus — from Hillsville in Carroll County west to Abingdon in Washington County — where community involvement and volunteerism runs high.

The Patricks make their living off the land, in a way. Five major hiking trails — including the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail — pass through Damascus. Hikers and mountain bikers can also travel the Virginia Creeper Trail, a 33-mile trip along an abandoned rail bed between Abingdon and White Top in Grayson County. And the region has some of the most dramatic landscape in the state, including the 5,729-foot-high Mount Rogers, the highest point in Virginia. It’s in the 120,000-acre Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. The 5,000-acre Grayson Highlands State Park is adjacent to Mount Rogers, as is the Jefferson National Forest, which covers thousands of acres in the region. Smyth County has Hungry Mother State Park, which is home to the Hemlock Haven conference center.

An easier route through the mountains is the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which extends from North Carolina and winds through Carroll County near the towns of Galax and Hillsville on its way north to Shenandoah National Park. The region’s main waterway, the New River, is one of its most remarkable natural wonders. The river is the second oldest in the world and one of the few in the United States that flows north. It meanders through Grayson, Carroll and Wythe counties, and is bordered by the 57-mile-long New River Trail State Park.

For indoor enthusiasts, there is Abingdon’s Barter Theatre, the state theatre of Virginia. When it opened in 1933, the advertised admission price was "35 cents or the equivalent in produce" — to help feed its hungry actors. It underwent a full renovation in 1997 and today The theatre’s founder, Robert Porterfield, a Washington County native, is also credited with organizing the first Virginia Highlands Festival, held each summer in late July and early August. The festival celebrates the Appalachian culture and draws more than 200,000 people. Another popular event is the Old Time Galax Fiddlers Convention, which attracts 10,000 musicians and about 40,000 appreciative listeners each August.

Some of the state’s most impressive antiquities come from the region. The Saltville Valley has a history of archeological finds. In the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson wrote of "bones of uncommon size" found in the area. Researchers have found the remains of Ice age animals such as the mastodon, along with the remains of human settlement dating back 14,000 years ago. In the town of Saltville is the new Museum of the Middle Appalachians, the creation of the Saltville Foundation, which is raising money to build a modern museum.

For people like Jeff Patrick, the region’s charm has less to do with its history and more to do with the people. "I came back here for the serenity and the slower paced lifestyle," he says. It’s a real nice place to live."