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.

[country music] [Joshua Deel] If a place could give you a hug, this is that place.

[country music] This is Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

It hasn't always been this way, but let me show you what it's like today.

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.

[♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] Surrounded by Jefferson National Forest, Big Stone Gap is located in the Coalfield region of Southwest Virginia in Wise County, and is geographically closer to more than half a dozen other state capitals than it is its own.

On this trip, I met up with fellow filmmaker and friend, Jacob Dellinger, to explore the town of Big Stone Gap and surrounding area.

-Well, hello.

Come in.

How you doing?

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

Our first stop was the nicely redone retro Visitor Center, where we spoke with local staff about town.

One of the first people we bumped into was the Director of Tourism and Economic Development here, Ked Meade, who told us a bit about the changes occurring in the area.

-Yes, it's been, it's been a great place.

We just did a bad job of telling everybody about it; it used to be a coal mining town.

Big Stone was the bedroom community, didn't really have a coal mine in it.

But the surrounding areas like Appalachia and Norton, that's where the coal mines, you'd find those.

This is where people settled, and this is where the mine offices were, and people, you know, lived here, worked there.

Of course, the coal industry's all but gone in our area.

And so we went through a time of, you know, pretty big concern of what we were going to do next.

So, we moved from an industrial culture to a tourism culture.

And, the thing about it is is small town USA, it's really-- it's going away.

They don't exist anymore, so that when you get these small towns like you have here, you've got to kind of preserve it.

But at the same time, you have to let the world know about it.

You know, when I was growing up, I couldn't wait to get away from it.

And the further I got away, the more I realized what I was leaving behind.

But, you know, today, we're here and we're really trying to do a rebirth.

It's more like a revolution, really.

We are heading down that path to make this a music destination, a tourist destination, a really fun place to be, while maintaining that balance.

It's really hard to keep small town USA small town.

So, we just want to offer all the cool fun things that a big city would have, while keeping everything small.

And I think we've really done a good job so far.

There's something magical about the place, I guess.

[♪♪♪] [Joshua Deel] Ked not only told us about who we should try talking with while in Big Stone Gap, but also about some hidden gems off the beaten path that we needed to see for ourselves.

[♪♪♪] Like Big Cherry Lake, a mountain lake over 3,000 feet above sea level.

It's characteristic of the picturesque beauty of Southwest Virginia.

Whether you're someone smitten with wanderlust looking for your next destination, or simply want to hike, kayak, or fish, this is certainly indicative of the verdant and forested allure of Appalachia.

[♪♪♪] -♪ Daisies blooming ♪ ♪ Sundress swaying In the breeze ♪ ♪ I can't stop staring ♪ ♪ You've put a spell on me ♪ ♪ And I hope that you never ♪ ♪ Decide to set me free ♪ ♪ The way you're movin' ♪ ♪ Has got me Movin' my own feet ♪ ♪ The greatest feeling ♪ ♪ That I could ever Dare to dream ♪ [♪♪♪] [Joshua Deel] Like so much of Appalachia, water has played an instrumental role in shaping not only the land, but the transportation and trade routes here.

Big Stone Gap itself is situated at the three forks of the Powell River that converge here.

Native Americans first called the area "Three Forks" until later, pioneers and settlers referred to it as "Mineral City."

The name "Big Stone Gap" was officially adopted in the late 1880s.

[instrumental banjo music] Next, we caught up with Tyler Hughes, known locally as the unofficial Mayor of Big Stone Gap, and a consummate ambassador for Southwest Virginia old-time mountain music.

He teaches classes on the art here at the local community college.

[instrumental banjo music] [Jacob Dellinger] Bravo.

[Tyler Hughes] Thank you.

So, my family has been here for a couple of generations.

And I grew up in town, I went to high school here.

And then, right after college, I decided to come back here.

I really love living in Big Stone Gap.

I really love small town Appalachia, and I think there's a whole lot of potential for communities like ours.

I wanted to come back and be part of that.

I would say Big Stone Gap is home, and not just home to me or home like a hometown.

Big Stone Gap really does give me that feeling that you might get from a hug from a friend that you haven't seen in a while.

Big Stone Gap, to me, is very much about the people that live here.

You know, some of my very best friends are here in Big Stone Gap, and I couldn't think of more honest or hardworking, or loving and caring people.

I always tell folks, if I needed something right now, I'd be overwhelmed with the number of people that I could call for help and say, hey, I need you to come pick me up, my car broke down or what have you.

Well, small town Appalachia, you know, it's a lot like small town America.

But, of course, we have such a unique cultural background here in the mountains.

When I think about the small towns here in Southwest Virginia, I think about how tight knit they are, how really family-focused they are, and just how interconnected all of their lives are.

And that's one of my favorite aspects about living here is the fact that, you know, I've known most of these people that I'm around for most of my life, and we have this really, unique shared experience of the good and the tough times here.

Appalachian music is, of course, the roots music of much of country and bluegrass music that we know today.

But this is not the same kind of music that you're going to find in Nashville or Bakersfield, California, or any of those other places that country music or bluegrass music really thrives.

This is old-time mountain music.

So you think of those unique ballads and the banjo and fiddle tunes that folks have always danced to.

And it's really an eclectic music.

I always love Appalachian music because it's sort of a microcosm of American culture.

This instrument here, the banjo, this is an African instrument that was brought here with enslaved peoples in the 1700s.

Ballad singing has a long tradition in Europe; the guitar is a Spanish instrument.

There were Native American influences, particularly around dance.

So, it's this really beautiful picture of just about everything that exists in the greater United States coming together to create a unique culture.

And, you know, to me, this music is much like the people in that it really perseveres, it's really resilient.

And it's been a tool for our people.

We think about those hard times when maybe there were downturns in the economy, or even when there were booms in the economy, and not everybody benefited from coal mining.

There are stories and songs about that, and they continue to live on with younger generations and tell our story.

I think that's one of the most important things that I can do personally as a musician is help educate other young people or younger people.

I'm still young, but there are lots of younger musicians than me out there now.

And that's been a, that's been something that I've been really passionate about for the last ten years, is working with things like our Junior Appalachian Musicians program.

So, it's our after-school music program where we educate local youth about how to play the banjo and the fiddle.

And I also am one of the co-coordinators for Mountain Music School, our annual summer music camp here at the Community College.

The influence of the musicians in Southwest Virginia is widespread and really worldwide.

You think about folks like the Carter Family who really gave us the folk songbook for American country music, but even here locally, and folks like Carl Martin, who had a huge influence on Blues music.

There were musicians like Kate Peters Sturgill and Dock Boggs just up the road that were really capturing that sound of the coal camps and that kind of grit that you might find in those communities.

And then, of course, there have been more recent musicians who've had impacts on the world like Ralph Stanley and his brother, Carter Stanley, who recorded... [Joshua Deel] After Tyler regaled us with some old-time tunes, we talked about the economic transition Central Appalachia has been faced with, and how Big Stone Gap is successfully managing to move from a single source economy centered around coal to a more creative and diversified economy, where the destination and the heritage itself, the culture, is the product and what draws people here.

Tyler gave us our next heading, and we were off to meet another local resident steeped not only in the music scene in Big Stone Gap, but the very fabric of old-time mountain music itself.

Meet Alan Maggard.

He and his dad started a recording studio over 50 years ago, in a very nondescript building in town.

Maggard Studios has played host to, and cut records for, some of the most iconic names in mountain music, including Ralph Stanley.

-As soon as I graduated high school, I applied for a job in the mines, and I started working for Westmoreland Coal Company, which was a big employer here.

Back then, you know, they were hiring ten, 15 a day if they could get them, you know.

And so we worked the mines... And so, I worked like that for like four years, and then I started helping Dad in our recording studio.

So, you know, we had the studio and we had a-- he was contracting maintenance work for Westmoreland.

So, I quit mining and started helping him.

When I first started mining, I thought that would be all I'd ever do, you know.

But yes, we started doing that.

And things started rolling for me and him.

And, we started doing sessions and, and it didn't, you know, it just ended up being a good thing that I did quit, you know.

We've done probably ten or 15 for Ralph Stanley, and, because people want to record with Ralph, you know.

People like Alabama's Randy Owen come to the studio and recorded with us, and he's done one song.

And Jim, I mean, Jesse McReynolds-- just a lot of the big bluegrass, you know, and a lot of the gospel.

We did a lot of gospel over the years, hundreds, thousands of them, you know.

And this is home; I don't know how else to explain it.

You know, I mean, other than having too many red lights, this is a good place.

Good to see town and people everywhere and music, I mean, every place has that live music, and I did a session yesterday.

And the couple come in and said they visited here, and loved the music scene so much that they just stayed.

So, they, you know, we're getting that now, you know.

So seeing the town back, booming, it's a different personality, but it's the same heart, you know, I think.

[Joshua Deel] From a growing music scene to artisans working on their craft, this creative economy in Big Stone Gap is moving forward.

One of the oldest forms of technology humans have, ceramics.

Baking clay is the first thing after cooking meat that people did to alter their environment on purpose.

You need some sort of vessel to make the simplest of meals, like rice.

So, clay pots go hand in hand with agriculture.

People and pottery had been connected since the beginning.

There's something incredibly grounding about an experience that connects you with the past, like molding clay.

[bagpipes music] "Turn, turn my wheel "Turn round and round "Without a pause, without a sound: "So spins the flying world away!

"This clay well mixed with marl and sand "Follows the motion of my hand "For some must follow and some command, though all are made of clay."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

[♪♪♪] Inseparably linked to the creative economy here in Big Stone Gap is the outdoor theater production of Trail of the Lonesome Pine, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2023.

I had the honor of speaking with one of its first performers, Jack Mac, who is also a central character in both the book and movie titled, Big Stone Gap .

As Ked told me earlier, Jack Mac is a national treasure and embodies the best small town America has to offer.

-My roots became very deep, very quick.

The Big Stone, it was kind of a gold rush mentality that got it started here.

It was projected to be the Pittsburgh of the South.

For to my back, Stone Mountain is all limestone.

Beyond that, through the gap, is where the coalfields start.

To the south, Wallens Ridge, and that's all iron ore, everything you needed to make steel.

But iron ore had to be deep-mined much as the coal.

Everybody was rushing to be part of the big boom.

They had a tent hotel, canvas partitions, but a New York chef.

A lot of these men were... recovering from the Civil War, engineers, and all the reconstruction, the final part of the reconstruction.

So they thought that they had really hit it big.

All the remnants of that was gone by the time I got in this world.

I was a clerk in the mines and then underground for, oh, about ten years.

Then, that mine closed down.

But, that was, the last time I was underground was in '88.

So, yes, it's been a while back down the road But over the years, I played every male role in the show here that was at the time.

They may have altered some since then.

Well, we are in the outdoor drama for the Trail of the Lonesome Pine, currently referred to as the June Tolliver Playhouse.

June was the character in John Fox's novel Trail of the Lonesome Pine.

That was published in 1908.

It remained second in sales to the Bible until Gone with the Wind was produced.

It was made into a movie three times, twice in the silent era.

And again, in 1937, it was the first movie made into technicolor.

And when it came about to do the play, my parents were instrumental in getting it started.

This went from a garden to a performance in 30 days.

First year was in 1964.

We-- everybody came together.

It's one of those crystal moments in time.

I come in here with a flood of memories.

Didn't know if it was going to take hold or not.

How was the public going to receive it?

'64 was the first show.

[Joshua Deel] And you were involved... -Fifty-three, for about 53 years.

Now sometimes, I wasn't on stage because there, for a period of time, I was on evening shift in the mines and things of that nature.

I wasn't all those years on stage, but it was never far from my heart.

In Wise County in 1940, there was 4,000 active beehive coke ovens, none in Big Stone.

But can you imagine living in these towns, these coal towns with that?

You think you going into the bowels of hell when you drive through.

Yes, we're going to have to find another avenue for our prosperity.

We're confronted with insurmountable opportunity, and I truly believe that.

And it's not going to necessarily be coal, not to divorce ourselves from it.

It's always been up and down that people have had to leave here, that when the decline in the coal, after World War II, people took off to Indiana, Michigan, to seek their fortunes up there in the car industries or whatever.

I decided a long time ago that this was home, and shall always remain so.

And I just wanted it to be... whatever I could do, to make today better than yesterday.

And I have always felt that.

[Joshua Deel] While talking with Jack Mac, I was truly struck with a deep sense of place, fully aware of the passage of time, marveling at those who came before us, from Native Americans to pioneers like Daniel Boone, who passed through this very town on his way to Kentucky, to the boom and bust of the coal industry, and now, the revival of sorts that's taking place today where the focus is on community over competition.

Like Jack Mac said, making today better than yesterday so that all have a chance to rise together.

I witnessed this spirit firsthand in numerous interactions.

Cold, like really cold.

What've you got?

-We've got lemonade, tea that we can add flavors to, or if you're really feeling it, and on a hot day like today, if you want a, some ice cream, go down here, 404 Creamery.

-[Joshua Deel] Yeah.

-[Shane Gibson] They've got some wonderful lemon crunch, apple pie, peach.

[Joshua Deel] All the options.

-A ton of options.

So, if you're looking for good ice cream, that's the best place to go.

-Do they have waffle cones?

-Oh, yes, a lot of options.

Dipped in chocolate and got sprinkles on.

-Yes, like a kid again.

Make no mistake, although Big Stone Gap is quite different than it once was economically, its rich culture, like Alan shared earlier, still draws people to visit.

And some choose never to leave.

My friend Jacob and I met up with one such family.

-We're from Northern California, so it's about 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe towards Sacramento.

We're in the Tahoe National Forest is where we were.

And, you know, I owned a business there.

Jen helped me run it.

And, she had been talking; her best friend had always wanted to go to Virginia for... since they were kids.

And, you know, we were finally at a place to where I, you know, we had been talking about getting out of California.

And, I just said, honey, let's go to Virginia.

Let's check it out.

Might as well, you know?

What do we have to lose?

And so, we came here, and we were on an 18-day, 18-day trip.

And, after three days of driving all over, every-- everywhere, I mean, you name it, 1,800 miles we drove.

And day three, we came here and stopped for lunch, and never left.

So, every day after that third day, we were here, ended up talking to the town manager, went around town for a whole day.

And that was it.

We decided this is where we're going to be.

It's the same, same kind of topography around that we were used to, same small town feel.

Very nice people, very inviting and loving, caring.

That's how we are.

So it was nice to have like-minded people around us.

And here we are, you know, it's been a year.

[Jennifer Jones] It was so different when we came here.

Like he said, everybody just genuinely-- we're in the grocery store, you know, wanted to talk.

I had went to buy balloons for our, you know, grand opening here.

And I must have been asked like, I don't know, five times if it was somebody's birthday.

You know, people just genuinely wanted to know, like, what was going on.

And that's what attracted us here when we first moved here was the amount of people in just the, what, 14 days that we were here, that we left with phone numbers saying, if you guys come back, like, don't get a hotel, just stay with us, you know.

The amount of friends, like genuine people, that we had met just in that amount of time, was just it.

I mean, we went home and on our plane ride home, we were like, this is it, this is our town.

This is what we've been yearning for, looking for, you know, missing in our lives, what we want our kids to, you know, experience, what I want my granddaughter to experience, you know, that like, just very nurturing community.

And I think we're in times where we need that, you know, we need communities that build together.

And... yes, we really try to, you know, invite everybody, no matter what their background is, or, you know, who they might be.

Yes, we've created a really great, I don't know, connecting, connection of people and community here.

And it has been one of the easiest things we've ever done.

Like, it's just the craziest thing.

Like, we weren't sure in our 40s, you know, like, what are we doing?

You know, are we going to be able to make friends?

Are we going to be able to, you know, create a, you know, a new life, you know, from what we've known for, you know, 39-40 years?

And it's like, we've never not been here.

I mean, it's really the people, all of it has just been super amazing.

Big Stone Gap is a mountainous community that just hugs you the second you get in it.

And we said that when we left here on the plane ride back to California.

We're like, we felt like it just scooped us up.

It was like, pick us, stay here.

And it's been that way ever since.

[Brian Jones] Everybody that you come in contact with wants to be, you know, wanted to be around you and wanted, you know, friendship and family.

And... [Jennifer Jones] It's very emotional for us because, I mean, we had a great life.

Like, I don't know that it gets any better than what we have right now.

Yes, it's very... we're like, I feel blessed.

Yes.

[Joshua Deel] When the days appear dark and the times seem combative, there are places where a different story is being lived out; where community is valued over competition, where history informs the present, and where the mountains themselves hug you.

[♪♪♪] [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.