Articles by Willis

Welcome to Sakura Tattoo Parlor. This is a brief description of Willis' visit to the establishment and why in the world he was there. Sakura's contact info and location is here: 505 South Cameron Street, Winchester, Virginia 22601 (https://goo.gl/maps/kBJ8jL6oxsH2) Telephone: +1 540 722 3777...

REPOST Conversion. Originally posted by Tony on April 6, 2007. I've finally started on the task of scanning these old newsletters. I thought I would pause here and get feedback. First, know that the pages must be scanned in bunches; I cannot stick all 500 pages into the scanner at once. At...

The "Legendary Floatzilla" of 2007 The trip back wasn't nearly as lonely as it appears. Mommy JJFBaltzell, Shannondale and Beyond's very own Supermoderator, was behind the lens. The grass was high and in need of mowing. FOSS needs to find a way to increase DNR's interest in Shannondale...

The First Incarnation In 1886 a few young men*, communicants from Zion Episcopal Church in Charles Town WV, began a Sunday School in a schoolhouse east of the Shenandoah River and southeast of the city. The area was near Mannings, a community at the toe of Jefferson County's Blue Ridge...

Those Markers We See So Often They Sometimes Blend Into The Background What are they all about, where are they located throughout our County, and what the heck do they say? Shucks, you never have time to read them when you're driving by.We reckon the best way to describe the the markers would...

by ClearThunder An Expose into this Secret facility An expose' into one of the most secret and secure military bunkers in the world, just a few miles away Includes Photos and a Video On December 1, 1975, during near-blizzard conditions, a Boeing 727 TWA aircraft with 85 passengers plus the...

Welcome to one of the most extensive history presentations ever assembled for our county of Jefferson, West Virginia. The presentation, which presently consists of 190 YouTube film shorts and links to 2 websites, is a labor of love by Jim Surkamp. To describe Jim as an ardent lover of history...

Prologue Before there was a much development on our Mountain, tragedy struck atop the Blue Ridge. On Friday, June 13, 1947 the second worst commercial airline crash (at that time) occurred just below the crest of the mountain on its western slope. Bad weather contributed to the tragedy as the...

Introduction A while back, Shannondale and Beyond came into possession of the edition of The Jefferson Republican, one of the local newspapers available in the 1950's, that celebrated the sesquicentennial of Jefferson County. The edition was published on September 20, 1951. It contains all...

The following material was originally contained in the Jefferson County School News Vol. 2, No. 7 dated April 1976 and graciously provided by its Editor, Mary Stocks. In 1976 Jefferson County School News was a monthly publication sponsored by the Board of Education as a public service to...

The Shannondale Iron Furnace Near the Horseshoe Bend of the Shenandoah River A Very Brief History In the early 1700's, William Fairfax became the owner of 29,000 acres of the Virginia Colony. The land was referred to as Shannondale. Early in the area's history it became known that copious...

Back Story: Jefferson County's newspaper, "The Sprit of Jefferson's Farmers' Advocate" was put in an unique situation as a weekly publication to chronicle this sad a disturbing story in a serial fashion. From reading the account you can visualize how this story unfolded. And you can give...

Introduction The editors are trying to piece together a history of the schools of the Blue Ridge. We've been able to collect a few items and would like to enlist the help of all our readers in this effort. The old schools are gone. There may be some few structures left that once served as "seats...

Jefferson County's First Hospital Note from the editors: The article comes from the sesquicentennial issue of the Jefferson Republican, dated September 20th 1951. we reproduced it verbatim with the addition of a couple of extra photos. We'll include a blurb at the close of the article about...

The following material was originally contained in the Jefferson County School News Vol. 2, No. 5 dated February 1976 and graciously provided by its Editor, Mary Stocks. In 1976 Jefferson County School News was a monthly publication sponsored by the Board of Education as a public service to...

From the Jefferson County Sesquicentennial issue of the Jefferson Republican 9/20/1951 "The Bloomery" As Washington Saw It On Friday, May 9, 1760, George Washington "called at the Bloomery and got Mr. William Crawford to shew me the place that has been so often talked of for erecting an Iron...

From the Pages of History A Short History of Blue Ridge Acres, West Virginia by Ruby Browning Reprinted with the Permission of the Author The Former Sales Office (Now Clubhouse) Dear Readers: I told Bettie LaMotte that my first retirement project was going to be writing local history for my...

THE MIRACLE OF THE MOUNTAIN HAD DRAMATIC ENDING WHEN: Three-Year-Old Jefferson County Girl Is Found Safe After Being Lost For 50 Hours in Rugged Blue Ridge Mountains Published January 2nd 1958 in the Spirit Old Jefferson Farmers' Advocate By Don Rentch On the west side of Mission Rd. BLUE...

The Methodist Churches of Our Blue Ridge Mountain Our first venture into the history of the Methodist Church on the Blue Ridge Mountain of Jefferson county has been aided by the Reverend Donnie Jane Cardwell, pastor of the Chestnut Hill Methodist Church. Chestnut Hill is one of three churches...

Campfire Inc.'s Camp Takahano The logo of Campfire Inc., the organization formerly known as The Campfire Girls operated Camp Takahano situate in Jefferson County WV. It's our understanding that the group utilizing the facilities was "Camp Fire 4-260" of the Potomac Area Council(now the...