Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - 34

FROM LEFT:
* Lewisburg's Farmers Market offers a bounty of produce.
* The Lewisburg North House Museum is full of surprises.
* The Alderson Train Station and Visitor Center.
* Alderson's Store has welcomed shoppers for four generations.
as a girl's school, a dude ranch, a staterun
women's prison, and an inn again.
Now the old hotel is a girls' school again
and closed to the public. But visitors can
still visit the historic spring down the hill,
sample the water and pick up bargains at
the Pence Springs Flea Market every Sunday
April through October.
I've been looking forward to Alderson,
and not just because of the Martha
Stewart cachet and the possibility I might
score one of her knitted ponchos on the
cheap. (Alderson, you may remember, is
the home of the Alderson Federal Prison
Camp where Stewart was imprisoned in
2004-5.)
No, I'm more interested in Sarah Alderson,
the fourth generation owner of the
Alderson Store, the oldest general store in
West Virginia. She doesn't have any knitted
ponchos, but she does run the rare
store where you can find a collection of
new fedoras, outlandish clocks, a blizzard
of snow globes, and close to every book on
West Virginia recently published. Alderson,
who left a career in television to take
over the family business, now presides
over an eclectic mix of modern and antique
gifts, home decor, and clothing. The
store is just across a pedestrian concretearch
bridge from Route 12, in the business
district beside the Amtrak station. It's also
within a block of the pretty Old Victorian
Inn B&B.
West of Alderson, our tour on Route
63 turns right to twist along the valley in
tandem with the Greenbrier to Ronceverte
(ron-suh-vurt, French for " green brier " ),
where we rejoin Rt. 219 and the Mountain
Music Trail. The American Heritage Music
Hall, on Island Park promotes live heri34
BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
tage music, especially danceable old-time
string band tunes. Jams are every Tuesday
night and dances every fourth Saturday.
Lewisburg, the Biggest Burg
When you reach Lewisburg, you've almost
made it to Carnegie Hall, without
the " practice, practice, practice. " One of
only four Carnegie Halls in the world, the
small, wide auditorium of this venue gives
attendees the chance to experience dazzling
musicianship, dance and literary talent
up close and personal. What's more,
several times a year, anyone who wants
to twirl on the oak floor of Carnegie's
stage can dance at one of Mountain Music
Road's square dances. I do a few steps on
the empty stage and imagine an audience.
Traditional American music by no
means dominates the entertainment scene
in this town of 3,900. On any week, you
might choose among classical at Carnegie,
blues at the Asylum, Americana at Greenbrier
Brewing Company, and bright, blissful
rock at Hill n Holler. Lewisburg is also
home to the Greenbrier Valley West Virginia
State Theater, six art galleries, nine
local-owned restaurants and Sweet Ambler
Spirits, named the nation's best craft distillery
in 2018.
The North House Museum, across the
lawn from Carnegie Hall, is eight rooms
chock full of surprises... like the 1897 photo
of 1,395 turkeys being herded through
Lewisburg. Rooms are divided by periods
and themes, so the gloves made by a child
kidnapped by the Shawnees in the 1760s
sit near the 47-pound gun enslaved Dick
Pointer fired from nearby Fort Donnelly
as he single-handedly held off the Indians
while his master slept. The story is here, as
is the tale of the Greenbrier Ghost, Zona
Shue, who returned to convict her murderous
husband.
Visitors who venture beyond town
limits will find adventures in-and underneath-the
local forests and rivers.
The limestone terrain is carved with underground
passages, and the town's commercial
cave-Lost World Caverns-offers
both lighted and wild caving tours. Lost
World is home to some of the nation's
largest formations as well as a natural
history museum containing castings of
dinosaur bones. To reach Lost World, follow
Court Street 1.5 mi. north to 907 Lost
World Drive.
Any time a fix of deep, quiet nature is
in order, Blue Bend Recreation Area exerts
a magnetic pull. As Anthony Creek rounds
the bend, it becomes progressively deeper.
Small children play safely in the shallow
area bordered by a flagstone beach laid by
Civilian Conservation Corps workers in
the 1930s.
The trip to Blue Bend is an adventure
in West Virginia backroads driving, including
the bridge to Blue Bend. Locals
sometimes refer to this as a " lay over
road " ; when you meet another vehicle
you'd better " lay your right wheels over "
on the unpaved right shoulder. Luckily,
nobody drives very fast on these roads.
From Blue Bend east, it's four flatter
miles to Route 92, which has two lanes.
From here, it's only nine miles south back
to I-64 and our starting point.
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Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021

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