Virginia Maps Always Seem To Interest Me

I have always liked maps.
No, let’s say that I’m really obsessed with maps, especially in studying detailed maps and then trying to figure out how one place looked years ago in comparison to how it looks today.
I am especially intrigued by John Smith’s work in the 1600s.
For one, Smith flipped over the shape of Virginia and looked at all the coastal inlets sideways – from the angle of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
But I also get a real kick in studying the shapes of local counties.
Especially in seeing how Sullivan County once stretched many more miles than it does today.
Or in how seeing the shapes of places like Burke’s Garden – that bowl atop Garden Mountain – stand out in topographic relief maps.
Some people might sit for an hour reading a book.
Me? I’ll sit for an hour looking at a map. Actually, I sit and stare.
Mary Ann Artrip, a novelist, likes to tease me when she talks about how excited I once became looking at a giant wall map of Washington County, Va., several years ago.
I had stopped in Abingdon to talk about one of her books at the Washington County Service Authority.
But then, I just couldn’t take my eyes off this map showing places like Abingdon, Meadowview and Emory.
So now, with all this mind, you might understand my excitement when I stopped in the Museum of Middle Appalachians recently and found a giant map of Washington County, made more than a century ago by renowned geologist C.R. Boyd.
The detail is exquisite.
It shows not only old roads but proposed railways. And all kinds of mills.
Where did this 1890 map come from?
Well, as it turns out, Harry Haynes, the manager of the Museum of Middle Appalachians, made a deal.
As the story goes, a friend owed him some money. But then, instead of collecting money, Haynes accepted this map as payment.
The Washington County map has since been restored by the Library of Virginia in Richmond, Haynes said, and talk is now being made about making copies and selling it at the museum to help raise money for operations.
Copies of a similar map by Boyd – of Smyth County – sell for $40.
Money, certainly, is needed by this museum, Haynes said.
“This is quite a volunteer effort,” Haynes added. “The only thing that we’re not short on here is history.”
n Want to see all this for yourself? The Museum of Middle of Appalachians is offering guided tours during the Virginia Highlands Festival on Thursday, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The museum’s exhibits include local geology, fossils, Ice Age paleontology, Native American culture, colonial settlement, Civil War battles, the salt and chemical industry and ecology – all linked by the presence of salt.
Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for children. Call (276) 496-3633.