Features
Trail Days , by Joe Tennis and Suzanne Gannon
The Appalachain Trail is the most famous hiking route in the nation, and there is more of it here than anywhere else. Two rock-hopping tales from opposite ends of the state.
Deep Roots , by Ben Swenson
What’s crunchy and tasty and synonymous with state agriculture? The peanut, of course. Production volumes have fallen, but nobody’s giving up on a food crop that families have bee growing and processing for more than 160 years.
In Every Issue
Letters | Contributors | Natives | Reviews | Style | Bellwether | About Town | Odd Dominion | Departures
Upfront
First & Ten , by Richard Ernsberger Jr.
After a 68-yard hiatus, Old Dominion University has a football team again–and a marching band. Cue the cheerleaders … and here’s the kickoff.
If the Shrew Fits , by Christine Ennulat
A remarkable mammal with an apt name.
Feline Finger Food , by Bland Crowder
A Bluefield family pet enjoys unusual takeout.
Hunting Down Bad Guys , by Bill Glose
A tough-minded rescue specialist who doesn’t fret about breaking laws.
Joy and Synergy , by Lisa Antonelli Bacon
Great Falls Studios compromises 88 talented electric artists who share ideas, friendship and “a sense that we’re all in this together.”
Departments
Interview | The Ham Man , by Richard Ernsberger Jr.
Joe Luter III, chairman of Smithfield Foods, talks about his career and the family pork business he tuned into an industry powerhouse.
Virginiana | Striving for “Ultimates” , by Erin Parkhurst
An accomplished poet and literary biographer, Virginia Moore had friendships with Robert Penn Warren and Allen Tate and a tempestuous marriage to poetry critic Louis Untermeyer. She was sentimental about Virginia and especially adopted her home town. A retrospective on the “Queen of Scottsville.”
Dining | Two Minds Are Better Than … by Christina Ball
A pair of former Chicago chefs have brought haute cuisine to Chilhowie’s Town House.
Food | A Moveable Feast , by Christine Ennulat
Before long, a strange sensation will start to grip fishermen and consumers along the East Coast–striper madness! It’s a hard-to-define attraction to the striped bass, a migratory game fish found in large numbers in the Chesapeake Bay. As one fish merchant says, around here, “striper is king.”
Towns | The Great Marsh , by Bill Glose
Poquoson is a peninsula jutting into the Chesapeake Bay and the oldest continuously named town in Virginia. It’s a place where people are passionate about the water, where crusty watermen mingle with brainy NASA scientists, and where family histories go back to the 1700s. No wonder Bull Islanders, as Poquoson residents call themselves, tend to take the long view.