Word & Image

For 22 years, they have poured their hearts into the music and the mountain. And they have been toasted by a ton of beer. Mountain Lake Resort Hotel's lively Oktoberfest stars the Sauerkraut Band, a German oompah act boasting about 20 members.

The National Committee for the New River organized a float this summer from Boone, N.C. to Gauley Bridge, W.Va., where the New joins the Gauley to form the Kanawha. Tim Thornton paddled along and dropped a line whenever he found a wireless connection

Cancer took Judy Bonds, the legendary West Virginia fighter against the destruction of Appalachia's mountains, early this year at 58. Illness had forced her to stop work at Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) in Whitesville, W.Va.

It’s called The Dries. Between Hawks Nest Dam and a power plant just upriver from Gauley Bridge, the New River almost disappears. Most of the river is diverted into a three-mile long tunnel dug in the 1930s to provide power for a chemical plant.

I love ghost stories. My partner, photographer John Sheally, knows any mention of a spectral sighting signals that he should settle in and get comfy – we’re staying for the full story.