5 /5 Ward Dougherty: An amazing place. A wonderful story and a great method to capture the Appalachian culture and history for future generations.
I had heard about the Foxfire books ever since I was a kid. They ranked up there with the Farmer’s Almanac and other books that were resources of what should be common sense information before the internet came into being. Now I have a whole new respect for them. I stopped by because of the road signs as I was visiting the Black Rock Mountain visitor’s center and viewing area higher up the mountain from this site. All I can say is…Wow. What an amazing place. It was built from the proceeds of the famous Foxfire articles and books about rural Appalachian life and ways. There are over 21 sites on property and each one could have a review on them. Each of the buildings has an informational sign and history that makes them fascinating in their own right. There is a large gravel parking lot and a visitors center. The entire tour took me about an hour but you could spend a lot more time here learning a lot about all of it. The grounds were all clean and well kept and many, if not most, of the buildings were designed to be walked inside with more informational displays on the walls. The staff consisted of one person at the first building on the path which serves as the entrance and gift shop with bathrooms right behind it. I highly recommend this if you want to learn about the Appalachian history and way of life. I found it fascinating and hope you will too. Enjoy.