Images of Southwest Virginia: Big Stone Gap

Museum Director Looks At Big Stone Gap

BIG STONE GAP, Va. – You might say Sharon B. Ewing was made to write a book about Big Stone Gap.
After years of working to promote tourism in Southwest Virginia, including a stint with the Clinch Powell Sustainable Development Initiative, Ewing now serves as the museum director of Big Stone Gap’s Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park.
Today, it’s her job to explain how the inviting town once called “Three Forks” and “Mineral City” became known as Big Stone Gap. She’s telling that story not just at the museum – she also does it in a new book.
“The community of Big Stone Gap’s dedication to the preservation of history inspired me to preserve the Gap’s history,” Ewing said. “There is an impressive array of museums, programs and historical structures for a town with a population of approximately 6,000.”
Ewing’s new “Images of America: Big Stone Gap” (Arcadia Publishing, $19.99) features about 200 photographs in chapters called “The Birth and the Boom,” “On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine,” “Let’s Go Downtown,” “A Good Time Was Had By All” and “A Little Town with a Big Story.”
“The book is not only about the history of the town, but also what makes up the fabric of the community,” Ewing said.
Several successful and famous people have roots or ties to the area – including authors John Fox Jr. and Adriana Trigiani; Gov. Linwood Holton; NFL players Thomas Jones and Julius Jones; and former Miss America Leanza Cornett.
You’ll find photos of all those folks in “Big Stone Gap,” plus shots from Home Craft Days at Mountain Empire Community College; a gathering of the United Mine Workers of America; and some cowboys standing at the old Rim Rock Railroad and Recreation Area, a place once featuring a model frontier town, railroad and five-acre lake. Ewing takes a trip to the Country Boy Motel and Restaurant; Ray’s Cafe; Mutual Drug; and the Coach House Restaurant.
She shows early pioneers, like Rufus Ayers, Pearl Morris, Henry McDowell and John Daniel Imboden.
Ewing also explores a wide variety of sports, including volleyball, baseball, harness racing and swimming. And she provides a lengthy introduction, telling of how the town developed.
Author Adriana Trigiani composed the book’s foreword, writing about Big Stone Gap’s lush forests, rambling hills and wide open fields.
“Big Stone Gap is a slice of authentic Americana, mountain style,” Trigiani writes. “The stories told in photographs and prose on these pages are the stories of small-town America, preserved with wit, hospitality, old-fashioned elegance, a love of art, and a keen sense of community.”

MEET THE AUTHOR
Who: Sharon B. Ewing
What: “Images of America: Big Stone Gap”
Where: June Tolliver House, 522 Clinton Ave.-East, Big Stone Gap, Va.
When: Aug. 30, 11 a.m.
Info: (888) 313-2665
Web: http://www.arcadiapublishing.com
E-mail: