This story originally appeared in the March/April 2017 issue of Morgantown Magazine. A strange-looking visitor stopped by Jake Hutchinson’s Pickers Paradise shortly after the Fairmont guitar and antiques store opened in 2011. “He had that big beard split in two, one (half) was going to…
This story originally appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail on Thursday, May 3, 2012. LANSING — Zeus has been growing in Mill Creek canyon for four centuries. The massive hemlock tree stood watch as white explorers moved in, replacing the land’s native inhabitants. Zeus was…
This column originally appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail on January 2, 2015. I remember the day I became a coffee drinker. I stayed home from school with a blazing sore throat. That afternoon, as I laid on my grandmother’s couch in misery, I got an idea….
This story originally appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail on Wednesday, May 7, 2012. Jina Jordan has held several jobs in her life. She owned a cleaning business and then worked as a pizza dough maker at Gino’s Pizza in Sissonville. She drives cars for the…
This story originally appeared in the February 2017 issue of Wonderful West Virginia magazine. Look around Old Hemlock, the historic Preston County home of writer and illustrator George Bird Evans and his wife Kay, and it doesn’t take long to get a sense of the…
This story originally appeared in the December 11, 2012 edition of the Charleston Daily Mail. Ben Cedar crossed the Silver Bridge three times on the day it fell. He was working as a Kirby sweeper salesman back then, and crossing the bridge was the fastest…
This story originally appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of WV Living magazine. Russ Jones navigates the woods with an ease that only comes through vast experience. His running shoes do not lose their footing on this steep, unmarked trail in Kanawha State Forest. As a certified…
This story originally appeared in the August/September ’16 issue of Morgantown Magazine. Susanna Wheeler prefers not to divulge the location of her summer garden. She’ll admit it is planted on WVU property, but that is as much information as she’s comfortable giving out. “We don’t…
This story originally appeared in the August 2016 issue of Wonderful West Virginia magazine. At first, no one knew exactly what was happening, or why. But one fact was clear—lots of things were dying in Dunkard Creek. Division of Natural Resources fisheries biologists Frank Jernejcic and…
This story originally appeared in the summer 2016 issue of WV Living magazine. Arrive late to a show at the Jerry Run Summer Theater and you can hear the music as soon as you open the car door. Low frequencies seep from the uninsulated walls, drawing you along the worn grass path…