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"Northern capital rushed in with an eye on millions to be made from virgin oak, chestnut, pine, and poplar. Trees were cut ruthlessly without regard for future growth. White Top and Cat Face stand as lasting memorials to the denuding of mountains.…

"…Porterfield persuaded a company of 22 unemployed and hungry New York actors to follow him to Abingdon and exchange culture and entertainment for food. Town officials, intrigued by Porterfield’s audacious idea, agreed to let him stage plays in the…

The Damascus Enterprise Company, of which General Imboden was head, helped to organize the Abingdon Coal and Iron Railway Company with the purpose of bringing a railroad from Abingdon to the lumber lands near Damascus.

Contemporary accounts of the shift in Damascus from an industrial, extraction-based economy to an ecotourism-based economy.

"Taverns played an important role in the early years of Abingdon, when large numbers of settlers were passing through the area on their way further west. Governor David Campbell wrote that when he first saw Abingdon as a boy in 1783, there were only…

"In 1912 the Virginia-Creeper Railway was bought by the Norfolk and Western and extended on to West Jefferson in North Carolina. The line has been in operation under Norfolk and Western ownership continuously since that time, and Damascus is the only…

One of Lou's favorite sites

Thursday morning. John Weaver... came in before I was up to have me determine some ore for him, and agreed to go with me to the Whitetop, an exceedingly high mountain, 3 miles north of the, say Northwestern most corner of N.Ca. of course in Virginia.…

"The Abingdon Branch crossed some of the highest and most scenic terrain of any standard gauge railroad in the United States. In the 55½ miles from Abingdon to West Jefferson, there were 108 bridges, most made with timber, and no…

"The first Virginia-Carolina locomotive reached Damascus on January 25, 1901, and the way for hauling out timber was opened. Whiting's sawmlll in Abingdon began receiving its supply of lumber from Damascus at once."