Green Cove Ready To Host Celebration

We have a lot of colorful names of the map of the Mountain Empire.
There are places called Blue Ridge and Bluefield. There is Red Hill and Red Ash.
You can also roam from Whitetop to Whitewood. Or look for Green Spring, Greendale and Green Cove.
A place that also boasts quite a colorful history, Green Cove lies just off the 34-mile-long Virginia Creeper Trail – a multi-use recreational path that was once a railroad line. Here, passengers stopped as early as the 1910s at the still-standing Green Cove Depot.
Today, Green Cove remains a secluded section of Washington County, Va., lying near the tranquil tri-state corner of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. This scenic place took its name from the big pine timber that was later logged and shipped down the railroad.
This weekend, folks are rolling out the red carpet in Green Cove for the community’s Third Annual Green Cove Celebration, held on Sept. 19, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“And we’re hoping to get a lot of bikers – if it’s pretty weather,” said Mary Blevins, one of the festival’s organizers.
A longtime Green Cove resident, Blevins operates a bed-and-breakfast called Green Cove Getaway, and she has helped plan this homecoming festival since its inception a couple of years ago.
This year, the event has moved up a week, so as not to conflict with the Grayson Highlands Fall Festival, being held the following weekend at Grayson Highlands State Park, Blevins said.
“We had been doing it a week later,” Blevins said. “But a lot of people would stay a few minutes and then say, ‘We have to go.’ ”
Last year, too, that last Saturday in September hampered attendance after a nasty downpour drenched this gathering – and others like it in Blountville, Bluff City and Kingsport. So Blevins is hoping for fair weather.
She’s also inviting all to the fun of the Green Cove Celebration, held along the Virginia Creeper Trail at both the Green Cove Depot and the Green Cove Community Center.
Inside the community center, look for a video of old photos of Green Cove.
You’ll also find food vendors and a long list of musicians playing bluegrass, gospel and old-time mountain music – including Bill Greer, Rick Ott and Jim Greer.
You can buy raffle tickets for a chance to win a homemade quilt, fashioned by Irene Etchison of Whitetop, Va.
You could also win a stained-glass picture of the 1914 Green Cove Depot, made by Pennsylvania resident Paul Ours, Blevins said.
“I think a lot of people who have been raised here and gone off,” Blevins, 67, said, “they like to come back and join their friends and their relatives.”
All others who simply love the peace and beauty of Green Cove – or the Virginia Creeper Trail – are welcome, too, Blevins added. “It’s just a fun day.”
For information, call (276) 388-3386 or (276) 388-3393.