Growing up, I thought everyone had a fairy stone. My mother kept hers in the box that held her most treasured jewelry. She'd take it out from time-to-time and lay the cross-shaped stone in my hand. It was cool and brown, lightly polished with a metal loop on top but otherwise imperfect, raw, like it had just been pulled from the ground.

"This cross wasn't made by man," Mother would tell me.

Every time, I was amazed. I'd studied rocks in school. I'd pulled them from countless river beds. I'd never seen stones like this, but she said that there were many of them and that they were created by heartbroken fairies.

Many years ago, the fairies were happy, she'd explain. They lived in the woods not far away and were dancing when a stranger came. He'd traveled the world, and he stopped to tell them about the things he'd seen--great pyramids, rivers as wide as seas, and the saddest death ever.

A man who said he was the son of God had spent his life healing people and spreading love. "Jesus," I'd whisper. Mother would say, "Yes, Jesus," and continue. The stranger told the fairies that some men were afraid of Jesus and threatened by him, so they captured him and nailed his hands and feet to a cross. They whipped him, starved him, and let him die.

The fairies had never heard anything so sad. They began to weep and when their magic tears splashed against the earth, they suddenly crystallized and were frozen forever in the shapes of little crosses.

 

 

Fairy Stone State Park. Photo provided by "hsarik" on Flickr.

I'd squeeze the rock in my hand, certain that it was an ancient fairy tear and wonder if I could find a fairy stone of my own. I searched every stand of trees in our suburban neighborhood and kept my eyes to the ground whenever we were in the woods. I never found one, but maybe I just wasn't looking in the right place.

This Wednesday, June 6, Fairy Stone State Park in southwest Virginia will host a fairy stone huntand a necklace making workshop. The park, named after the famous keepsakes found within its borders, is one of a kind. Stones form like crosses in other places, but they are only found in abundance at this one park, and, of course, nowhere else has built such a endearing story around the stones.

Geologically speaking, the stones are staurolite, a combination of silica, iron and aluminum. According to the Virginia State Parks website, staurolite crystallizes at 60 or 90 degree angles, creating the stone's cross-like structure.

The mineral, which is only found in rocks that have been subjected to great heat and pressure, was formed during the rise of the Appalachian Mountains.

As a grown up, I think the truth behind the stones is nearly as enthralling as the myth. 

You might also like

Sweet Decay at a Mountain Resort

---

You know what Springtime means--home sales!
Everything from in-town efficiencies to two hundred acre horse farms have hit the market in the past few weeks, which makes it the perfect time for another edition of "Which Mountain House is for You."
I've picked two homes that are for sale in the southern Appalachians. They're both in the same price range--this time a whopping $1.3 million. (It's fun to dream!) But that's where the similarities end. They’re different styles with different features.
So which mountain house is for you?
Vote here, and leave a comment below. It would be great to hear what won you over.
Downtown Condo
Charlottesville, Virginia
[nggallery id=charlottesville-condo]
This stunner touches the sky. In one of Charlottesville's premiere downtown condo buildings, it towers over the area's low rise buildings, affording you breathtaking mountain views. With three bedrooms, it's big enough for a small family. Features include:

• 10 foot ceilings
• Gas fireplace
• Walnut built ins
• Balcony
• Garage parking for two
• Walkable to all that downtown Charlottesville has to offer

This morning, we awoke to heart wrenching images from yesterday's devastating tornadoes. Homes, schools, and in some instances entire towns were torn apart as damaging storms and more than 95 tornadoes tore across the Midwest and into the Appalachians.
I know we're all eager to help. Here are announcements that I've found for ways to donate funds, time, and other resources to the disaster response efforts in our region and beyond. As I find more ways to help, I'll add them to the list. Please also share any announcements that you find. Submit them as comments below, and I'll incorporate them into this post.
If you have been affected by the storms or tornadoes, you can find food, water, and a safe place to stay at an American Red Cross shelter.
[caption id="attachment_5191" align="alignright" width="257"] March 2, 2012 reported tornadoes. Click for interactive map.[/caption]
Alabama
For volunteer information, call 2-1-1 (in Alabama) or toll-free 888-421-1266.
Kentucky
Central Bank locations are accepting donations for Kentucky Cares, a campaign established with the Bluegrass Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Checks can also be mailed to the Bluegrass Chapter of the American Red Cross at 1450 Newtown Pike, Lexington, KY 40511 with Kentucky Cares in the memo line.
A truck at the Hamburg Pavilion Walmart in Lexington will be collecting goods on Monday, March 5th from noon to 7:00 PM.  Items needed include cleaning supplies, garbage bags, paper products, flashlights, batteries, bottled water, and non-perishable food.
Donate blood throughout central Kentucky with Kentucky Blood Center, which has locations in Lexington, Pikeville, and Somerset.
Kentucky Emergency Management has a special page set up for volunteer information.
I've seen that you can donate at Fifth Third Bank and Kroger in central Kentucky, but it's not clear to which organizations.



Tennessee
Greater Chattanooga Red Cross will begin holding volunteer orientations on Saturday, March 3, at 1:30 p.m. Positions include: warehouse, feeding, runners and office workers. Background checks are required. Contact this Red Cross chapter for additional dates and times.
Salvation Army Chattanooga is also seeking stand-by volunteers. Text your name and email to 423-505-1052 to be added to the list.
The McKamey Animal Centerin Chatanooga has a dog and cat food bank available for pets that have been affected by the storms. If your pets are displaced from your home or if you find displaced pets, please call 423-305-6500.
West Virginia
The Huntington Area Food Bank is sending a truck filled with food to hard hit areas in eastern Kentucky. They are accepting financial donations.

American Red Cross: donations can be made online or by calling 1-800 RED CROSS. You can also text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief. If you’d like to volunteer your time, you can search for volunteer opportunities online.
The Salvation Army donations can be made online or by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY. $10 donations can also be made by texting the word STORM to 80888.
World Vision donations can be made online or by calling 1-888-56CHILD. $10 donations can be made by texting WV to 20222.
 

I spent my weekend in the slender crevice between four Maryland mountains. Our friends Tim and Peter lent us their house. It’s a 1930’s bungalow that clings to one mountain, just a few yards higher than the Savage River, and faces another. From its wood porch, I watched for deer on the steep incline across from me and listened to river water splashing against winter’s cold stones. The house is graced with a big-bellied wood stove, mountain views from every window, and crisp air that is free of city smog and, as it turns out, wireless signals.
Having spent the last three days without internet access, I’m a little late on my usual weekend post, but I'm excited to share a find from Western Maryland. It's a series of upcoming films that will cover "Appalachian traditions in our changing world."
Each film will be short--fourteen minutes max. Collectively they will be called The Mountain Traditions Project. According to a write-up on Appalachian Independent, the films will follow area residents who are keeping mountain traditions alive. They include a dulcimer player, a metalworker, a quilter, a group of homesteaders, and kayakers. The music for the films was also composed and performed by Appalachian musicians.
The below preview gives you a taste of the final series, which premieres this Saturday at 6:30 PM in the Mountain City Traditional Arts store in Frostburg, Maryland. I'm hoping that the shorts also land online. If so, I'll be sure to share them here!
http://vimeo.com/35727605

[caption id="attachment_5053" align="alignnone" width="514"] Future eastern home of Sierra Nevada, Mills River, N. Carolina.[/caption]
How can your town attract a leading craft-brewed beer company, along with 200 jobs, a one-of-a-kind tourist destination, and a great restaurant?
Ask Asheville.
After an exhaustive three year search that spanned more than 200 locations, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company recently announced that its east coast headquarters will be built on Asheville's south side in a borough called Mills River.
Folks there are beside themselves. "The tourism aspect of this is going to be incredible," Henderson County Manager Steve Wyatt said in a recent interview. "People will come from all over the East Coast to visit this site, to do the tours or the restaurant or the sampling or whatever. It's going to be one of the major draws in Western North Carolina, perhaps second only to the Biltmore House. It's a big deal."
He's right. It is a big deal to Asheville and it was to another Appalachian location that Sierra Nevada considered. According to The Roanoke Times, the company also took a long, hard look at Roanoke.
"We were in the running for a long time," said Jill Loope, Roanoke County's acting director of economic development, "and we had high hopes for a long time."
According to Loops, Roanoke County was aggressive in its bid for the facility, but in the end, Asheville won out, which begs one question--why? What made Asheville shine brighter than Roanoke and 200-and-some other spots east of the Mississippi?
[caption id="attachment_5066" align="alignright" width="172"] Sierra Nevada's flagship brew.[/caption]
As a Roanoke-native, it smarts a little to ask these questions, but they're important. There's a lot the be learned here, so I reached out to Erika Bruhn, Sierra Nevada's Marketing Manager. She took a few minutes in the midst of the company's big announcement to talk about the search. She explains why Asheville was irresistible, why business incentives are only part of the equation, and why your city or town better get to work on those bike lanes.
After reading the interview, tell us what you think. What really hooked Sierra Nevada? What can your town do to to attract new businesses? Think this is worth sharing with your mayor or town council?
TR: Erika, thanks for talking with me. You've said that "the Asheville area offers Sierra Nevada Brewing the perfect confluence of community, recreation and craft beer culture." I can see that, and it would be great to hear more. What kind of community were you seeking? 
EB: For the past several years, in our search for a second brewery, we reviewed over 200 different sites with painstaking detail and an exhaustive list of qualitative and quantitative considerations. In North Carolina, we were humbled by the community, its values and the outstanding craft-beer culture in the area. While we were making this decision, it was important for us to choose a location similar to our home in Chico, California. Mills River and the Asheville area feel like a great fit for us; a close-knit community with outstanding quality of life, shared values and access to the outdoors.
TR: I've never been to Chico, California. What's it like?
EB: Chico is approximately ninety miles north of Sacramento with a population of around 80,000. A university community, Chico is home to California State Chico (CSU), and maintains a unique quality of life, with a small-town vibe, bike-centric culture, and incredible recreational opportunities in and around the surrounding area. Bidwell Park is one of the largest municipally owned parks in the nation (3,670 acres), is the focal point of the City's park system and offers trails for mountain biking, hiking and equestrian use.
[caption id="attachment_5072" align="alignleft" width="192"] Main brewhouse in Chico, California.[/caption]
TR: If you had to choose one, which influenced your choice more -- 1) the local culture and outdoor recreation or 2) business factors like taxes, access to clean water, and affordable land?
EB: We weren’t influenced by one factor alone, which is what made our decision more than a three year process! The intricacies and particulars of the brewing process relating to water quality, coupled with infrastructure needs Ken [Grossman, CEO] wanted around sustainability (close proximity to rail transport), made the requirements of a location challenging. Add to that, finding a community with shared values around the outdoor lifestyle, with a similar feel to our west coast roots, and you begin to understand more about our DNA and approach: it’s about making great beer of course, but also quality in everything we do: family, community and finding our sense of place were all unequivocally part of our decision.
TR: I understand that you were considering two locations in the Appalachians -- one outside Roanoke and one outside Asheville. Looking at just these two, what were the differences? 
EB: We can’t comment on other locations, but are very excited to have found our second home in the greater Asheville area in Henderson Country, North Carolina.
TR: If you could give any advice to cities and towns that are looking to attract a business like yours, what would it be?
EB: It’s difficult to offer that advice, since we haven’t walked in their shoes. It’s important to us to work with partners who have shared values and want to make a positive contribution to the local community.  We found that in Mills River.

You might also like The Crooked Road to Improving Local Economies

I am a sucker for open houses. When I'm walking around town and see those tell-tale balloons tied to a real estate sign, I make a bee line. I will stand-up friends or be late for a meeting. It doesn't matter; I won't pass up a chance to nose around someone else's place.
If I open the door and find the house empty, I do a brisk walk through, maybe critique the bathroom's tile job or admire a fireplace. And maybe, just maybe, see here for some good blinds to bedeck the windows with them to provide a hue to the house. I won't try to engage the real estate agent for fear of diverting his or her attention away from a real, prospective buyer. I stay long enough to have my "what if I lived here" fantasy, and then I'm on my way.
But if I see a La-Z-Boy that's too big to be "staged" or a cat scratch post hanging from a knob, any sign that real people live there, all bets are off. I linger, sometimes for an hour. I look in every closet. I open every cabinet, pretending to inspect the hinges. I peer under beds. I'm not searching for dust bunnies, just signs of life. I'm curious about the people who've sanitized this home, stripped out their books and family photos, painted accent walls back to renter white, and deserted the place for five hours so that strangers like me can tromp through.
It's not like I've ever stumbled across a severed thumb or a secret meth lab. I'm not expecting my self-guided tour to turn into an episode of Murder She Wrote. I just enjoy it when folks forget to hide their kid's battered hockey stick or they leave a mug that says "coffee helps me poop."
Really, that's it. That's enough. I just need to believe that these displaced owners are people I could know and maybe even like, that this oddly depersonalized house could actually be a home.
Do you get into open houses too?
If so, you might like this. Below are two houses. Both are in the Southern Appalachians and both are up for sale right now. That's where the similarities end. They're different styles with different features.
Which is the mountain house for you?
Vote here, and it would be great to hear what won you over. Leave a comment below.

Stone House
Burkittsville, Maryland
This 1890 charmer is pure coziness. With its golden stone exterior and red wooden shutters, it has the feel of a cottage but three bedrooms and a two story extension make it big enough for most any family. Features include:

• Fireplace and wood stove
• Open kitchen/dining area
• Log storage building
• Separate workshop
• Repointed stone
• Refinished floors
• Garden

      
Plantation House
Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Built in 1939, this showplace harkens to a much earlier time. You expect a hoop-skirted hostess to greet you from the curved stairs or for juleps to be served under a big elm on the lawn. Features include:

• Paneled den
• Fireplace
• Sunroom
• Sauna
• Exercise room
• Carriage house with finished office
• Optional guest house

    
 

You might also like The Dearing Home Place

 

I will never under estimate the power of the blue and gold. Native West Virginians have flocked to Jason Headley's love letter to his home state, entitled "Dear West Virginia." Since it posted last Sunday, more than 42,000 people have read it and hundreds have left heartwarming comments.

 

All of them share Jason's love for the state's hills and hollers and many asked an important question - how do we keep gifted young people like Jason in the Appalachians?

 

Today's guest blogger Elizabeth Gaucher has a few ideas on that topic. She left West Virginia at the age of eighteen for college, launched a career in adolescent health and child advocacy, and found her way back home fifteen years later. Along the way, she created the project Essays on a West Virginia Childhood and the blog Esse Diem, where the below post originally published.

 

*

 

The Magic Question: Can Appalachia Keep ItsYoung People

 

Every politician in a rural state with an aging demographic wants to know the answer to The Magic Question:

 

“How do we get young people to move here and stay here to start careers and families?”

 

I probably shouldn’t think this is funny, but for some reason I do. The situation itself is not funny, but the bizarre machinations around constructing arguments to lure twenty-somethings to rather than away from Appalachia are a little bit amusing. Part of the problem looks like this:

 

We say we want young, talented, intelligent, educated, passionate people to want to call West Virginia home.

 

Fair enough.

 

But then we talk to the very people we want to attract as if they are not wise enough to see what is written in flames about fifty feet tall. As beautiful as the Appalachians are, many parts of the region (including my home state of West Virginia) have a cascade of challenges. They are economic, social, educational, environmental, political, and medical. At least where I live, our day-to-day is not a party. We exist on some of life’s most frayed and tangled edges.

 

Don’t smart ambitious young people want to be in hip urban centers with lots of good times and easy living? That’s what it looks like on television, anyway.

 

What fascinates me is that I don’t think these “what’s in it for me” types are the ones we really want. No offense Jersey Shore and Gossip Girl; you’re entertaining and all, but you are the last thing we need over here.

 

The nation has suffered several years now of throwing off the costumes of wealth and easy money, sexy start-ups and Internet-driven marketing schemes. McMansions, gargantuan gas-guzzling vehicles, and extravagant parties are dwindling and even a source of embarrassment. We see more clearly what that all was, how false and how wasteful. No one wants to churn that again.

 

Even the PR efforts to market the great outdoors and low rent are part of a weak sales pitch. I’m betting we are on the edge of a different attraction. I say we market what we have for real and get the most hard-core world-changers we can.

 

I’m not sure what is more real than the opportunity to turn away from “all for me” and turn towards “all for the world.” Appalachia is in peril, and that is nothing new, but what may be new is the chance to harness global concern about our local issues to attract the right young people.

 

These are the ones who want to tell the stories of their youth as grand adventures in engaging serious problems with their whole hearts. They don’t care about bar-hopping and overspending on trips to casinos. They are modern journalists and water quality scientists and child advocates. They are health care specialists and teachers and professors. They are small business entrepreneurs and artists and historians and contractors. They are responsible natural resource leaders and sustainability experts.  Despite popular belief, they are lawyers too. They are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

 

They know right from wrong; they know giving from taking.

 

I don’t think they’re the types to tell self-pitying tales, and I don’t think they want a sales pitch or a hand out. I think they want us to get out of the way and allow their innovation, perspective, and talent to change the future of this complex place that we call home.

 

Will we?

 

You might also like Will Legal Pot End Appalachia's Biggest Cash Crop?

If you're like me, you don't plan your New Years Eve activities until the eleventh hour. We just decided two days ago to ring in 2012 playing pool and eating pickle flavored potato chips (our local billiard's specialty).
For all of my fellow stragglers, here are five favorite Appalachian NYE options:
5) SnowShoe Mountain's Gone Country New Years, Snowshoe, West Virginia: Snowshoe's 15,000 square foot entertainment venue, the Big Top, is going country tonight. Country headliners Tony Rio and the Relentless will be crooning for the grown-ups; the Boot Scoot Teen Dance starts at 11:30; kiddies will have video games; and everyone can chow on BBQ and fixins.
4) Tennessee Aquarium's New Year's Eve Sleep in the Deep, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Where else in the Appalachians can you ring in the new year with penguins? The Tennessee Aquarium invites you to go behind the scenes with its exhibits, get up close with their critters, and literally sleep with the fishes when you bed down in the Undersea Cavern of Ocean Journey. This one-of-a-kind slumber party includes guided tours, pizza, cider, and continental breakfast.
3) Veritas Vineyard, New Year's Eve Masked Ball, Afton, Virginia: Want to be a masked marvel in the new year? Here's your chance. Veritas Vineyard is hosting a five-course masked ball and dinner. There will be dancing until midnight, when the masks come off and the champagne flows. Breakfast follows at 12:30 a.m.
2) Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, Blood Mountain Hike, Blood Mountain, Georgia: Ring in the new year the way all good mountain folk should--standing on a mountain top. While details are iffy on its website, the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club is leading a six-mile loop hike that crests atop the 4,458-foot Blood Mountain, the highest peak on the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail.
1) Make Some Noise at Home, Wherever You Are: You don't need Dick Clark to rock out at home tonight. Just grab some pots and pans and latch onto local lore. According to our friends at Appalachian History, "some folks in Appalachia open every door and window at the stroke of midnight to let out any residual bad luck. They make a loud ruckus banging on pots and pans, setting off fireworks and taking part in other noisy activities to chase it far away."
However you ring in the new year, I hope you have a safe and spirited night!

Check out my gifts! With 125 of Dolly's favorite recipes and a coal history classic under my tree, it's been a very Appalachian Christmas. I hope you're having a wonderful day too, full of home cooking, maybe some country crafts, and more loved ones than you can count.

Y'all know that the days of bootleggers, backwoods stills and "white lightning" aren't over, but did you expect them to end up in prime time?
Tonight at 10:00 PM, Discovery Channel premieres its new series Moonshiners. Here's how they're billing it:
"Moonshiners tells the story of those who brew their shine - often in the woods near their homes using camouflaged equipment - and the local authorities who try to keep them honest.  Viewers will witness practices rarely, if ever, seen on television including the sacred rite of passage for a moonshiner - firing up the still for the first time.  They will also meet legends, including notorious moonshiner Marvin 'Popcorn' Sutton."
If it's got Popcorn, we gotta' watch, right?
Post a comment here, letting everybody know what you think.
[youtube]IbhrCSwAoQ8[/youtube]

Before I start all of the chopping, blending and baking today, I'm taking a few minutes to reflect. I'm thankful for so much. The people who are closest to me are in good health; I have a loving, close knit family; I've got work and insurance and a car that runs; and to top it off, I get to exchange ideas with you all every week of the year. I'm a lucky f'eller.
Whether you're spending Thanksgiving in the quiet solitude of a mountain cabin or in a house with three dozen wild children, I hope you have a truly, wonderful day.