Coffee shops, whitewater and secret hiding places

Travel >> West Virginia

Spend a weekend in the rivers and towns of West Virginia.

During the Civil War, Charles Town, W.Va. saw its homes destroyed and hundreds of soldiers captured. A walking tour includes buildings that survived and commemorate those days......

The Ballad of Miss Kay

Current Issue >> From the Magazine

She left a legacy of dance to a little high school in the N.C. mountains.

If Kay Burleson Wilkins had been a football coach, there’d be a stadium and a lot of kids named after her. If she’d coached in Texas, there’d be a town called Miss Kay, Texas. In Oklahoma, they’d have named oil wells for her and in Knoxville, Tenn., she’d have rated at least a street, same as famous Lady-Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt. But she didn’t coach football. She coached square dancing....

Biltmore: The Caretakers

Travel >> North Carolina

Go behind the scenes of the season at Biltmore Estate.

Until last Christmas, I had never been to the Biltmore. It looms large in the Blue Ridge Country cultural and historical landscape, this grand home on 8,000 acres of land. I’d heard and read, but I’m not sure I completely believed, everything saying the estate is beautiful and enormous and awe-inspiring. It is....

Filming the War

Current Issue >> From the Magazine

Blue Ridge PBS has produced a documentary on Virginia's Civil War.

Aerial photography and airplane fuel, interstate traffic and re-enactors roasting shish-kebabs: The making of a Civil War documentary film has its challenges. The producers covered as much ground as most Confederate regiments did, shooting over the course of two years on location in Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Manassas, Lexington, Blacksburg, Appomattox. They spent eight hours in an airplane in June 2008......

Ken Burns: The Interview

The filmmaker who created "National Parks" and "The Civil War" talks with Blue Ridge Country magazine.

"National Parks: America's Best Idea" premiered on PBS this fall. Prior to its airing, BRC's editor talked with its creator, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Portions of this interview aired on WVTF public radio and on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's "Inside Appalachia," and the interview is excerpted as our November/December issue's guest column....