Author: zackharold
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Old friends reunite over “Star Trek” fan films
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on July 17, 2014. Dale Morton was 43 years old when his childhood fantasy came true. He walked through the red turbolift doors and found himself standing on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. The screens were all lit up, the lights were all blinking […]
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Local artist does desktop publishing, 19th century style
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on July 10, 2014. CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kayleigh Phillips is happy to live in the past. Her East End apartment is decorated with vintage furniture and lamps and a wooden cuckoo clock. Her old, metal government-surplus desk came from a divorce court in McDowell County. […]
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Founded as a ‘Colored Institute,’ W.Va. State University Celebrates 120th Anniversary
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on October 11, 2010. INSTITUTE, W.Va. – West Virginia State University, which first opened its doors in March 1891, is celebrating its 120th academic year this 2010-2011 school yearThe Institute school, which now has more than 5,200 students and more than 80 academic programs, has […]
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If You Build It, They Will Play
This article originally appeared on NPR Music on July 14, 2021. In 2014 Sam Beam, the singer-songwriter better known as Iron & Wine, was looking for an unconventional way to promote an unconventional new record. Archive Series Volume No. 1 is a collection of cassette demos Beam recorded in the mid-1990s, when he was just making music […]
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America has a new national park but not all the locals are happy about it
This story was originally published in The Guardian on May 12, 2021. The New River has spent millions of years carving a bucolic gorge in West Virginia. It is now home to one of the most biodiverse forests on the continent. And while humans have tracked prey along its jagged cliffs for thousands of years, […]
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A Whole Different World
This story was originally published in the August 2017 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. The rocky spine of Seneca Rocks. The Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park. The gleaming Capitol dome set against a kelly green mountainside. The New River Gorge Bridge, as seen from the rocky outcrop at the end of the […]
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No Stone Unturned
This story originally appeared on the October 2017 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. Not much remains of the ancient stone walls on Mount Carbon except some piles of rock and lots of questions. This is a mystery story, but not the kind with private detectives or jewel heists or purloined letters. This is something deeper, […]
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Blue, but not the Bayou
This story was originally published in the February 2018 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. On June 14, 2017, smartphones around the world buzzed with the arrival of a new video from the Brave Wilderness YouTube channel. The 10-minute documentary carried a clickprovoking title: “NEW SPECIES FOUND?! Rare Blue Crayfish!” It opens with host Coyote Peterson […]
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Romancing the Stone
This story was originally published in the March 2019 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. In early February 1839, subscribers of the Cincinnati Chronicle opened their newspapers to find a 4,000-word article about some strange happenings in Moundsville, Virginia. Two archaeologists were in the process of excavating a large mound at the “flats of Grave Creek.” […]
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A Ruffed Way to Go
This story was originally published in the January 2018 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. Perhaps you’ve heard it—you’re walking through the woods, when a bass note suddenly breaks through the forest chatter. Whoop. The sound might not register at first but, in an instant, it comes again. Whoop. And again and again. Whoop. Whoop. The […]