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Back in 1997, now-contributing editor Joe Tennis took on his first assignment for Blue Ridge Country. He’s just back with a fresh look at this corner of southwest Virginia, rediscovering Claytor Lake and Wytheville, and finding new things like Draper Mercantile and the recreation area of Foster Falls along the New River Trail.
Joe Tennis
On a spring-like Saturday, I drove out to Claytor Lake, near Pulaski, Virginia, once again discovering the cozy qualities of the Homestead Inn. I anxiously took a stroll down the stone steps etched into the lush landscape. Then I reached the beach and breathed in the mountain air of southwest Virginia.
This was like coming home, back where it all began: the site of my first assignment for Blue Ridge Country, a story called “Sweet Virginia Breezes.” Following the type-written instructions of editor Kurt Rheinheimer, I had set off with my fiancée (now wife) to profile Virginia’s Pulaski and Wythe counties for the May/June issue of 1997.
Back on the beat, more than two decades later, I once again roamed from Peak Creek to Foster Falls, finding a surprising mix of change and familiarity.
Doug Eads, for one, no longer operated the Homestead. Now, this bed-and-breakfast belonged to Diane Whitehead and her husband, Tom.
“One of the first things I did, when I bought the house, was to cut the trees down on the bank,” Diane Whitehead says. “You could see there was water there, but the water wasn’t the feature. We have opened up the whole house to make the view of the lake the feature.”
Spanning nearly 5,000 acres, Claytor Lake is the shiny jewel in Pulaski County’s crown—an oasis boasting a state park plus plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. “It does have boat traffic, but it’s not insane,” says Whitehead, 70. “It is a lovely lake for fishing.”
Guests come to the handsome, brick Homestead Inn to watch birds, read books, ride the New River Trail and go shopping at the nearby Draper Mercantile, Whitehead says.
“And it’s a wonderful thing to offer the Mercantile to people and be able to tell them about it.”
Back in 1997, the Draper Mercantile was not here. Its rambling, white building was standing; it had once housed an antiques store. But that was far from what you see today—a shopping and dining destination, which opened in 2011, just off I-81’s Exit 92. Or, just off the New River Trail.
“It’s almost like creating this little village,” says the owner, Debbie Gardner. “And it’s more like creating the lifestyle that you aspire to, having that real connection that we’re losing nowadays—you know, the real Facetime.”
Draper Mercantile shares its name with Draper Mountain, a 3,332-foot-high point in Pulaski County crossed by U.S. 11, the legendary highway that connects courthouses, going from downtown Pulaski to downtown Wytheville.
Just east of that corridor, I wander a few miles to find Newbern. This village is the home of an annual fall festival on the second weekend of each October, uniting folk artists and painters, basket-makers and authors.
After 1893, when the old Pulaski County courthouse burned in Newbern, the seat of the county government shifted to Pulaski. But, unfortunately, fires persisted: Pulaski’s prominent stone courthouse would catch fire in 1989, and so would the town’s train depot—in 2008. Today, the town’s Raymond F. Ratcliffe Memorial Transportation Museum has moved from the old depot to its own structure on Commerce Street. The depot, in turn, has been rebuilt and repurposed.
“Downtown Pulaski is in a renaissance,” says 67-year-old businessman Bill Smith, who lives at Claytor Lake. “Downtown Pulaski was a factory town when I grew up—a busy, busy, busy place.”