Nestled in the heart of Appalachia.

The University of Virginia's College at Wise is where students experience unique regional culture and the great outdoors.

UVA Wise empowering students to learn and lead in their communities and the world.

[classical music] [Joshua Deel] As with all good things, Season 1 must come to an end.

The curtain's now closing, I head to Abingdon, Virginia to wrap things up.

A town I discovered that's steeped in history, full of charm and quirk, and has a delightfully vibrant food scene.

But don't just take my word for it.

-Abingdon really is as quaint and small a town as it is.

Abingdon really is the hub of what I call the culture of this beautiful region.

-Abingdon in Southwest Virginia right here is my home, and I want to preserve this place for... indefinitely.

-We were looking for a place to take us, or bring us closer back to family, and this was it.

We also, we became big foodies when we were living downtown in Atlanta, and Abingdon just has a great food scene, a fabulous art scene.

-I think Abingdon is practically perfect.

[Joshua Deel] I've heard it said, "Where we are affects who we are."

And I think we have the chance to understand ourselves better if we understand where we come from.

Hi, my name's Josh, and I'm producing this series with PBS Appalachia to explore the towns that so many people still call home, their hometown, to unearth remarkable stories and the people behind them.

Hometowns is about exploring the communities that make small-town America unique.

This season, I'll take you on a journey off the beaten path through Southwest Virginia.

And don't get me wrong, this place has its warts, but if that's all I showed you, you'd miss out on the remarkable beauty of its natural wonders, and the rich depth of its cultural heritage, that in a sense, are at the heart of what it means to be an American.

[♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] Abingdon is a town located in Southwest Virginia.

It's the county seat of Washington County.

And since Abingdon is larger than many of the towns I've recently visited, I had to pick my slice to explore and run with it.

Even though the food was tempting, if you've watched any of this season, you won't be surprised that I started by first learning more about the backstory of why Abingdon is here.

[Betsy White] I feel like Abingdon's position is so important in the settlement of Virginia, and American settlement, as a matter of fact.

It was 100 years after Jamestown was settled.

This was across the Blue Ridge Mountain, and it was 100 years later, the end of the 18th century, by the time this got settled.

But it was at the crossroads of the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road and other crossroads that led west.

But the Wagon Road itself went right through the Cumberland Gap and onward to western settlement.

But right here, Abingdon was just at the forks of the great Holston River, the Middle Fork, the South Fork, and the North Fork, which was also a big transportation route, as well as a very rich river for all kinds of commerce and pottery making.

And it just was a very important place.

By the time it got to be sort of the second quarter, I guess, of the 19th century, Abingdon was extremely prominent.

There is the story.

There is the truth that it was called Black's Fort first, and that was because it was a fort here, and a man named Black was the fort.

But there is also the great legend that it was called Wolf Hills because Daniel Boone came through here, which is true, and the story is that wolves attacked his dogs right in the middle of this area right here, and it was called Wolf Hills.

[♪♪♪] So, William King is the most wonderful story.

He was 15 years old when he came here from Ireland all by himself, and he did a regular apprenticeship in Philadelphia.

Most of the people that settled this area came through the port of Philadelphia, not through the Jamestown area, and they came from Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as Northern Germany.

William King came from Ireland, but by the time he was, let's see, about maybe 32 or 33 years old, he was able to build the beautiful house on Court Street he called Grace Hill, and he built it for he and his wife, Mary, a beautiful house for that early time out here on the frontier.

When this building-- we adapted this building 30-some years ago as a museum, and we call it William King Museum of Art, and we've created something that we feel fills a need in this whole entire region, which is the high-security nature of our galleries, and the fact that our galleries always have changing exhibitions so that we have something different to see all the time.

And one of our galleries, the one we're in right this minute, as a matter of fact, is based on our cultural heritage project.

The other thing we discovered was that there was a lack of understanding and real appreciation for the beautiful culture of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.

So we did a survey starting in 1994 of everything that was made in this region by hand prior to 1940 or '50.

And we have an archive of around 4,000 objects that we documented, and we used that to create these changing exhibitions like the one that we're standing in right now of quilts from this region.

The project also has resulted in a permanent collection of objects from all over the region.

That's textiles and furniture, long rifles, other metals, pottery.

The pottery tradition here is beyond beautiful.

It really is.

-[Joshua Deel] Yes, certainly.

[Betsy White] And two books, two books.

One book, Great Road Style, published by the University of Virginia Press in 2006, and Backcountry Makers, the makers that made these things themselves in 2013.

We are a nationally accredited museum by the American Alliance of Museums.

Of 35 or so thousand in the country, only 1,000 are accredited.

We are accredited.

-[Joshua Deel] Wow.

-[Betsy White] And that means that we take care of the art that we have here, whether it is a traveling exhibition like the Bernini Exhibit that we had two years ago that came from Italy, original 17th century works here, one of seven museums in the country that had it.

That's part of our mission of this changing exhibition schedule that brings things here that you wouldn't ordinarily be able to see.

[Joshua Deel] That's incredible .

[Betsy White] And it also means that this elderly lady that has lent us her family quilt feels comfortable that we're going to take care of it.

[Joshua Deel] Sure.

[Betsy White] Abingdon is probably one of the most perfect places to live and visit that I can possibly imagine.

It's small, but it has such a strong, vibrant cultural community, and restaurants and hotels to stay in.

It's big in that it thinks big.

It has always thought big.

As I said, governors were from here, and other lots of politicians from here have always been very prominent.

It thinks big in the way of the outdoors.

I mean, our outdoor life is gorgeous.

The climate is beautiful, too.

So, I think Abingdon is practically perfect.

[♪♪♪] [Joshua Deel] Betsy made sure to stress the significance of the historic architecture in Abingdon.

Abingdon is a town full of 18th and 19th century architecture, like The Tavern, the oldest building in town, built in the 1770s with quite the past, once serving as a stagecoach stop, an inn, a tavern, and even a hospital for wounded soldiers of the Civil War.

It was also the first post office west of the Blue Ridge.

[♪♪♪] Just up the road is Barter Theatre.

It was built in the early 1830s for use as a church, but by the mid-1870s, it was hosting theatrical performances, placing it among the oldest theatres in America.

Barter got its name during the Great Depression, officially opening its doors in 1933, exchanging ham for hamlet, as a means to feed actors by essentially paying 35 cents admission or an equivalent amount in food.

[♪♪♪] The Barter is the state theatre of Virginia.

It's the longest running professional equity theatre in America.

Today, Barter is one of the last year-round professional resident repertory theatres remaining in the United States.

It was originally housed in the old Stonewall Jackson College for Women, but today, its main stage is now housed in the old Sinking Springs Presbyterian Church, built in 1833, the second oldest theatrical building in the United States.

Its campus is spread to multiple buildings, including a second stage in the Historic District, as well as productions at the historic Moonlight Drive.

Many well-known actors called the Barter home early in their careers, including Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, Gary Collins, Frances Fisher, and Wayne Knight.

The theater has even won the coveted Tony Award for Excellence in Live Theater.

[♪♪♪] Tied to Barter's history is the nearby Martha Washington Inn.

Originally built in the 1830s for war hero General Francis Preston and his family, it has seen quite the activity over the long years since, serving as a women's college, another Civil War hospital, a residence for visiting actors of the Barter Theatre, and today as a hotel, restaurant, and spa.

[♪♪♪] [Charlie Berg] I do think Abingdon has an unusual-- it's kind of a little bit of a-- I don't want to say an anomaly, but it's a remarkable place in terms of there are a lot of people here who are really well-traveled, who love good food and wine, but are very low-key.

Abingdon is low-key.

No one wants to be too fussy, but the folks in our community definitely know good food.

And I think we're in the middle of a neat little restaurant community, too.

We love our neighbors across the street, down the street.

I'm sure you've been to a few other amazing spots right next to us.

So we love the idea of having kind of a little village culinary center here with all of our other restaurant friends right here on Main Street.

-[Joshua Deel] Sure.

-It is cool.

Yeah.

-[Joshua Deel] Lots of good options.

-Yeah, there are.

And, you know, a rising tide lifts everybody, so I think that's our goal.

Grew up in this area with my family.

I'm one of six kids.

And, yeah, we grew up just in the countryside, just north of here, running around the hills and dales, and left into the wine career as I graduated and moved on to Washington, D.C. and New York, did work with some of the top restaurants in the world.

As COVID happened, that put, obviously, a lot of things on pause.

I came to be with my father who had a major, kind of a life-threatening operation.

And... praise God, he's great.

He survived.

But that kind of got me thinking back this way.

And, yeah, my brothers have a really great company restoring buildings.

They do commercial construction and design around the country.

And this, one of their great friends and clients acquired this project, acquired this building, which was built by a guy named Lewis P. Summers.

He's kind of an interesting character himself.

In the late 1800s, of Abingdon, he wrote a book called The Annals of Southwest Virginia.

He was an avid sportsman, attorney, and this was kind of his home base.

And this building's been in Abingdon for, again, since the late 1800s and chartered in 1908, hence the Summers Building and Summers Roof & Cellar.

But everything you're sitting in right now was created.

So none of this existed.

We're actually about five feet higher than the original old rooftop.

And it was really as much as a renovation job, it was a restoration job.

Everything was kept very close to original.

And a lot of the old original items, such as window casings, were preserved and restored as opposed to total replacement.

So it's been an amazing building to operate a restaurant within, which, you know, it is just the cellar, which was a limestone, you know, just a limestone basement that we had to dig out many feet of dirt and then put in a flagstone floor.

They put in the elevator.

So it's definitely gained a new life as Summers Roof & Cellar.

The community's been super supportive.

You know, we've gone from-- when we opened, we had just a pretty, I would say, a fairly approachable, almost a steakhouse concept menu.

And we've expanded that now.

We have a really amazing chef, Chef Nick Jones.

He's one of the top chefs from Napa Valley.

He's come and he's kind of expanded on the concept, and brought in world-class level cookery.

So it's gotten really exciting.

We just want to be a place where people relax, unplug, rewind, unwind here on the roof.

And the cellar, you know, if you really want to have just a-- I would say a world-level dining experience, the cellar is perfect for that too.

It is a wine cellar.

It's a working, operating wine cellar and the kitchen.

So you're watching the kitchen, and you're sitting in a wine cellar and having amazing food.

Abingdon is, to me, its own kind of island of historic depth, of beauty.

Abingdon's kind of the gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

To me, we're at this neat spot, which I would call the Mountain South, which really encompasses a lot of Northern Carolinas, Northeastern Tennessee.

And to me, Abingdon really is as quaint and small a town as it is, Abingdon really is the hub of what I call the culture of this beautiful region.

[♪♪♪] I would say Abingdon is absolutely an island of beauty, history, and the culture of the Mountain South.

There's a side to Abingdon that's very old-world and has a lot of depth in the history of the country too.

You know, our history in Abingdon goes back to the late 1700s, you know, and very close to the advent of our own country.

One of the neatest stories of Abingdon is the story of the Overmountain Boys, who, you know, the British were coming across the Gap, coming up across the mountains.

As you know, White Top is a great feature of our immediate area, and they were coming essentially across from the coast, across the mountain, close to White Top, and the Overmountain Boys met them.

They ran up the mountain and held off that incursion, and that story lives on.

It's an amazing part of our history.

[Joshua Deel] And if you watched the episode on Tazewell, Virginia, you can now connect the dots that the men who mustered there met up with those mustering in Abingdon to go on to win the battle at Kings Mountain, ultimately a turning point in the American Revolution.

I can't help but be fascinated by Abingdon's interwoven tapestry of culture, history, and cuisine, and how each has played a role influencing the other in the present day.

[♪♪♪] -I'm Christal Trivett-Presley, and I'm co-owner of Abingdon Donkey Lodge.

So, people come here for the Creeper Trail, primarily, and a lot of people come here particularly to the house because they have a love of history, but then when people see donkeys, they go absolutely wild.

So, I think people come here for all three of those reasons.

You can walk right out the door of the house or the bus, walk across the road, and you're on the Creeper Trail.

We're six miles to the right from Damascus, nine miles to the left from Abingdon.

[♪♪♪] So, Abingdon Donkey Lodge is, we have two Airbnbs here, one in the house, and then we have a bus on the property as well.

It's also a donkey sanctuary.

This bus definitely has a history.

It's a 1957 Greyhound bus, 35 feet long, and it used to be an intercity bus in San Francisco, so it served San Francisco.

It was a connector between all of San Francisco and the Central Valley and California.

So, it was a Greyhound bus for many years, through the '60s, through the '70s.

It was bought by one of the drivers in the '80s, converted to a motorhome, and then wasn't used very much, sat in a barn for about 20 years.

And then, it was bought by the people that we bought the bus from, and they actually lived in it for eight years.

And to be honest, I was a little scared of it at first.

It's a manual transmission.

I can't drive a manual.

Also, it's huge.

We ended up getting it because we fell in love with it, and we especially love stories, and we fell in love with the story behind it.

Well, we never, ever sat down and said, "Let's start a donkey sanctuary."

It happened because we were looking for a couple of donkeys to mow our lawn.

We fell in love with a neighbor's donkey, and I guess the rest is history.

We took a donkey on, very early on, about five years ago, before we even lived here, when we were living in another part of Virginia, that was abused.

And we took her on as a temporary kind of thing, and it ended up being permanent, and it turns out we had more skills than we thought we had.

So we started taking other neglected, abused, rescue donkeys.

And so, now we have eight.

After we got our first three donkeys, we quickly realized that donkeys are not horses, and they're very misunderstood, not only in the equine community, but just with the public as well.

So one of the things we do here when people come here is we give them a donkey tour that, yes, is a glorified petting zoo, but that's more, where they can learn the differences between donkeys and horses because they are entirely different species, where they can learn proper donkey care, a little bit of donkey training, and just more about donkey behavior.

Donkeys have notoriously this bad reputation in the equine community, which is where the whole concept of ass came from.

[♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] [Joshua Deel] Like I explained in the opening episode of this season, the reasons I picked up a camera were to film both the breathtaking beauty of Appalachia, as well as convey the rich depth of its cultural heritage, and in so doing, show that the egregious stereotypes about this region are mere phantoms.

[♪♪♪] What better way to illustrate these points and wrap this season than to show you the passion someone who moved from Napa, California, has for preserving the heart of Appalachia.

[♪♪♪] [Loren Gardner] So I'm a seventh generation Napa, Napa Valley, my family settled there in 1813, in between 1813 and 1818.

They founded in 1813, got a Spanish land grant.

Then my dad started a construction company in 1958.

He started a construction company doing heavy earth moving, and developed hundreds of thousands of acres of vineyard in Napa and built a lot of wineries.

So we were always intrinsically tied to the winery world, making this come full circle from Napa to Appalachia and going from there.

[Joshua Deel] Are you glad you made the move?

[Loren Gardner] I was made for this.

Napa... people ask me all the time if I miss Napa.

What I miss the most about Napa ended 25 years ago.

I grew up on the farming, hunting, fishing, equipment side of that equation, the development side of that equation.

Now it's become so hyper-manufactured, like San Francisco has, all of Northern California has pretty much.

And it became more like an amusement park for adults than it was back to its roots in farming and, you know, basic science.

-[Joshua Deel] Yeah.

-[Loren Gardner] And... here feels like Napa 35 years ago.

And I want to try and help prevent it from being so commercial and industrialized that we lose the heart of Appalachia.

And I can see that happening because, I mean, you know, we have more residents moving to Southern and Mid-Appalachia than anywhere else in the country at a huge rate since the beginning of the pandemic.

Everybody's been moving out of Californian cities and moving here.

We have the potential of just making the same mistakes that Napa made 30 years ago and resulting in what it is now, and I don't want to do that.

So preserving places like this that are on the river, protecting one of the cleanest major water sources on the eastern seaboard with farming right next to it, and persevering, like, and concentrating on good farming practices in order to prevent it from becoming the North Fork or becoming the Middle Fork and making the same mistakes that the industry's made prior to now being so close to these water sources.

I mean, we were farmers.

We were farmers since the 1600s because family is part of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, the Samuels, the McGuinness's.

So, coming back to that and getting away from the industrialization side of that equation has been part of my lifeblood.

Our wines are rated in the top 5 percent of wines in the world.

I really appreciate that, and I want to be able to keep the price points at a place where my friends can still come buy a bottle of really good wine, appreciate this environment, listen to good music, and feel safe, and not have to have the arrogance of what the wine industry has become in the past 20 years.

But a lot of people in this region that I've met will freely say that Appalachia, or Southwest Virginia, is 20 years behind everybody else and that Virginia forgets that Southwest Virginia exists or anything that exists south of Roanoke, right?

Virginia stops at Roanoke, according to Richmond.

And it's just-- it's unfortunate because there are so many great things that are happening here and so much potentiality.

Abingdon in Southwest Virginia right here is my home, and I want to preserve this place indefinitely because not just this community needs it, but society needs it.

We have the Creeper Trail here, which now gets 250,000 people a year on average, plus, down the trail that is 200 yards away right across the river.

And we have a lot of things to attract people, but we have to also maintain quality and growth to a place that is sustainable for our locals to be able to live, give us enough incentive to continue to stay here, and the quality of living and life that makes us want to continue being here, and not let it get out of hand to the point that it forces us out.

I don't want it to become an adult Disneyland like Napa or strip malls like Fresno, you know, or the arrogance and pretentiousness of D.C. We want to be, like, organic in our heart and the community.

[♪♪♪] [Joshua Deel] This is the spirit of Appalachia.

This is home.

[♪♪♪] [music fades out] Nestled in the heart of Appalachia.

The University of Virginia's College at Wise is where students experience unique regional culture and the great outdoors.

UVA Wise empowering students to learn and lead in their communities and the world.