Blue Ridge County - March/April 2014 - 47

den and porch with swing and rocking chair.
Cupboard knobs, pictorial tiles, and the basket of
handmade soaps, shampoos and lotions are created by
local artisans whose work is featured in the museum
gift shop. Although free Wi-Fi is available here, television is not. A DVD player, books and board games are
available for entertainment, as are a stream, resident
wildlife and walking paths through the craftsmen's
shops, barns, corncribs, cabins and other log structures of the 15-building farm village.
"We like to help guests maintain the spirit of the
setting," Whitted says.
That spirit seems especially evident at night, when
the darkness falls over the cabins and the stone marker
commemorating an Indian battle at the setting.
According to the marker, Cherokees and Shawnees
fought for two days over elk-hunting rights, leaving
their dead to be buried in a mass grave nearby. Axes,
arrowheads and bones of at least 60 Indians have been
unearthed on museum property. Add this vibe to that
of the adjacent Revolutionary War cemetery, where a
local witch (or eccentric spinster) is rumored to have
been interred, and to the log structures created
through the toils of generations of mountain people,
and you have a rich atmosphere for fertile
imaginations.
Heritage Farm Museum and Village
3300 Harvey Rd, Huntington, W.Va.
304-522-1244; heritagefarmmuseum.com
If the re-created log village in West Virginia's Cabell

County looks familiar, it's because you saw it first with
Kevin Costner standing on a porch. Scenes from the
History Channel miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys"
were shot here in 2012. Now visitors can spend the
night in these same cabins, hearing the same birds and
frog songs that shrilled in the background of the television show.
Heritage Farm Museum and Village Owners Mike
and Henriella Perry are pleased with the publicity but
firm in their decision to leave televisions out of their

Facing page and top
left: Crab Orchard
Museum's Pioneer Park
features 15 buildings.
Above: The Ralph Stanley
Museum hosts visitors on
the fourth floor.
Left: The Cottage at Crab
Orchard keeps the
pioneer spirit alive.

SLEEPING UNDERGROUND

Organ Cave, 242 Organ Cave Dr., Ronceverte, W.Va.
304-645-7600; organcave.com
Once you've slept in a cave, you can forget counting sheep - your new go-to sleepy place to
imagine on sleepless nights is the absolutely dark, pristinely quiet, unchanging atmosphere of
an underground cave chamber. Some cavers say they've never had a more relaxing sleep, if they
use padding and non-crinkly plastic liners under their sleeping bags. Of course, some strenuous
climbing, crawling, and scrambling over cave boulders makes for a tired, happy camper too.
Organ Cave near Lewisburg, W.Va., in addition to its regular historical cave tours, offers the
Undernighter Tour to groups of three or more fit and adventuresome campers of at least 16.
The 18-hour wild caving experience includes lots of scrambling in dark, seldom accessed sections
of the cave, perhaps with a waterfall or underground stream along the way.
Cave ethics require packing everything in and out, so remember those "bathroom" bottles.
Fires in caves are not a good idea, so meals are sandwiches and energy bars. You'll never have
a more peaceful night ... unless someone snores. Emerging from the cave into the morning sun
is exhilarating. Colors never look more exquisitely beautiful than after a night underground.
Other caves offering overnighters are Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tenn., and Cumberland Caverns
in McMinnville, Tenn. -SCW
MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 47

http://www.organcave.com http://www.heritagefarmmuseum.com

Blue Ridge County - March/April 2014

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