West Virginny
Wednesday: Talcott
Today we paid homage to John Henry – the legend. There is a statue of him outside of Talcott, West Virginia. It is above the opening to the “Great Bend” railroad tunnel, which is where he purportedly hammered himself to death while trying to beat the new mechanised steam drill while building the tunnel. (As you may already know if you read this blog from the start, he succeeded in beating it, but then he died right after, with hammer in hand, so the legend goes.) The locals insist that the story is true. The man in the store, who was most impressed with our van, said that his great grandfather worked with John Henry and that there are local descendants in the town.
The statue, which to be honest isn’t as big as I thought it would be, shows the great man poised with his hammer, no shirt, and a look of grim determination on his face. His upper body is peppered with bullet holes, apparently from some of the locals who do not like John Henry, possible because he’s a black man… Or maybe he’s just a convenient target practise. The great website roadsideamerica.com (where we found the info about the statue) writes, “The steel drivin’ man endures the ravages of time (and people) in the West Virginia hills… folks can’t seem to stop peppering it with buckshot, or yanking it off of its pedestal with their pickup trucks. Up close, one can see that John Henry’s face is battered and disfigured, and that his chest, upper arms, and shoulders are pitted. Rifle bullets? Pickaxe holes? Impact damage from being dragged along Hwy 3? John Henry has on occasion suffered the indignity of being doused with white paint — a vandalism whose message frankly escapes us.” Anyway, unlike the disrespecting locals, we were there to pay hommage.
As we drove into town, there were signs advertising the “John Henry Days” festival, which is on this very weekend. The festival features bands, street vendors and a fun run. But the headlining event of the festival is the rubber duck race, which is a race where participants float down the river on inflatable devices and the winner gets $1250 in cash. None of the events seem to have anything to do with John Henry or his nine pound hammer. There is, however, a bluegrass band playing on Friday night, which would be a treat. Still, we can’t decide if it’s worth sticking around for as the town is tiny and there’s not much to do. A mere speck.
We are camped a few miles away on the beautiful Greenbrier river, in the beautiful Greenbrier County, which apparently, according to the guy at the campground store, is the county in West Virginia with the lowest crime rate, and West Virginia is the state with the lowest crime rate in all of the country. We had a nice swim in the river when we arrived and then it started pouring and we sat in the van and Bj did some work on his laptop and I made some crappy lentils for dinner.
Friday: Seneca Rocks
Now we are at a spot called “Seneca Rocks” which is still in beautiful West Virginia. (We decided to skip the John Henry Days festival.) The drive here from Talcott was one of winding Appalachian roads, stunning views of the mountains and the countryside and many beautiful old barns. Pretty much the entire drive was away from the interstate so we got to soak up the scenery uninterrupted by strip malls and trucks and fast food signs. It was a great day of driving, if a little on the nausea-inducing side thanks to the winding roads.
West Virginia is so green, full of cute little towns, and there is a many a beguiling river rambling through the birch trees. Also I have noticed a bounty of huge, striking butterflies hanging around the riverbanks. It really is a kind of paradise.
(Okay, after I wrote this blog post but before I’d uploaded it, I was walking the dirt road from the campground to the coffee shop and thinking about the beauty of the spot where we are staying in, with its shady riverbanks and butterflies and all, and i was thinking about how I’d just written that it was not unlike paradise. And I was thinking how true that was, and then I thought “This is the garden of Eden right here… the garden of Eden…” And just at that moment I gasped and froze for a second because right in front of me was a metre long black snake slithering across the road. No disrespect, but I’m not a “fan” of snakes and I felt a deep fear and loathing for a few seconds, and then the irony of the situation occured to me and I thought, “That’s humourous.” And went and told Bj how funny it was that I’d been thinking of this spot as the garden of Eden and then I’d been startled by a snake.)
We came to Seneca Rocks because of the rocks. There is a pretty spectacular rock formation on top of one of the mountains here, it sticks out rising above the trees like a rooster’s crest or the “plume” that comes out of a knight’s helmet… as though they are two dimensional, cut out of cardboard and glued along the crest of the mountain. Like a Mohawk viewed from the side but not straight… Anyway there’s these crazy looking rocks and we are going to climb them.
lambert wrote,
I’m assuming that attacks upon the person of John Henry don’t constitute crime then?? I always thought Virginia had a pretty massive crime rate, being the home of clipse(!) but then again that’s probably not west virginny now is it?
Link | July 14th, 2008 at 9:24 am
beccy joe wrote,
Probably Virginia has the highest crime rate and West Virginia has the lowest. I don’t know who clipse is but he SOUNDS like a criminal.
Link | July 17th, 2008 at 2:50 am