Bike 76 VA: The Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast

Host, Tom Ewing , a Professor of History at Virginia Tech, presents the introductory episode for the Bike 76 VA podcast. As indicated in this episode, Bike 76 VA explores a history of Virginia which is diverse in stories, equitable in thinking about opportunities and challenges, and inclusive of perspectives. Each episode is based on original research using source materials from the era as well as...

In the spring of 1976, as Bikecentennial riders began to cross the United States on two wheels, a very different procession began a similar journey from the Pacific Coast to the eastern United States. The Trail of Self-Determination was an attempt by American Indian activists to call attention to more than two hundred years of broken promises by the United States government. The 1976 Trail was ins...

About two miles north of Davenport, Route 76 crosses Russell Fork, a mountain creek that winds along the side of the road for nearly thirty miles close to the Kentucky border. Or, to be more historically accurate, the road winds along the path of the river, as the waterway existed in this land long before these routes were established by people walking, riding on horseback, traveling in wagons, dr...

In southwestern Virginia, traditional forms of Appalachian culture are celebrated along the Crooked Road, an 333 mile driving route that includes many milestones in the history of American popular music. The designated stops along the Crooked Road include recording studios, birthplaces of famous musicians, and key moments in performances for public audiences. The road also includes sites of musica...

As cyclists ride through the valleys of southwestern Virginia, the hills are almost entirely covered with trees. It is easy to think that this natural environment has been in place for centuries, since before humans settled the American continent. In fact, across most of the Appalachian region, including southwest Virginia, the forests were almost entirely cut in the late nineteenth and early twen...

In the town of Damascus, Route 76 intersects with the Appalachian Trail in the center of town. Once a year, in May, an estimated 25,000 people attend Appalachian Trail Days in this small town with a regular population of just 650 people. Camping is encouraged in a designated tent city in a town park, hundreds of vendors sell crafts, food, and hiking gear, and a full schedule of music, including ma...

In June 1976, as cyclists made their way across the country during the Bikecentennial, a ground-breaking ceremony in a small town in the mountains of Grayson County celebrated plans to open the Troutdale Community Health Clinic. The health clinic was built near the intersection of route 16 and route 603, less than a mile from the route followed by cyclists riding the Bikecentennial in the summer o...

Raymond Arthur Byrd was a veteran of World War I, who served with the 807th Pioneer Infantry, a segregated unit fighting in France during the last months of combat in the fall of 1918. After the war, Byrd lived with his wife and three children in Black Lick, located just a few miles north of where route 76 crosses Mill Creek and several miles west of Wytheville. Bird worked as a laborer on a farm...

At Fort Chiswell, Virginia, the Transamerican Bicycle Route parallels a section where two interstate highways run together. Interstate 77 connects North Carolina to West Virginia and Interstate 81 connects Tennessee to the Canadian border in New York state. For a cyclist, the highways are not accessible. Interstate highways are closed to two wheel vehicles, which are relegated to lower traffic rou...

In the summer of 1976, as cyclists rode through the city of Radford, they passed within a few blocks of the community hospital, established in the second world war, and a pillar of the community’s downtown. At the present time, cyclists along this route will see a new facility, built in the late 1990s, from route 76 just southeast of Radford, where Mud Pike Road parallels Interstate 81. This hospi...

On the afternoon of June 25, 1909, Booker T. Washington, the most famous African American leader of the early twentieth century, delivered a speech in the town of Christiansburg, Virginia, located along the Transamerican bicycle route 76. An exploration of the history of Booker T. Washington’s visit to the Christiansburg Institute provides a basis for exploring the complex relationship between rac...

As cyclists ride through the Catawba valley west of Roanoke, they observe two strikingly different examples of how twentieth century Americans have thought about the relationships between health, physical activity, and the natural environment. Immediately to the south of the Transamerican Bicycle Route is McAfee Knob, one of the most famous landmarks along the Appalachian Trail, which extends for...

Located just north of the city of Roanoke, Troutville is situated at the intersection of four major transportation routes: Interstate 81, the historical Highway 11, the Appalachian Trail, and the Transamerican Bicycle Route. Troutville is also one of the few places where Route 76 passes through a suburb. This diversity makes the Troutville route distinctive among the more than 500 miles of cycling...

Along the Blue Ridge portion of the Bikecentennial ‘76 route, visitors find themselves in the small town of Buchanan, the hometown of suffragist Mary Johnston. Born in 1870, Johnston grew up in Buchanan, and then her family moved around the east coast of the United States. She became famous in the early twentieth century for her fictional novels and short stories. Once she had established her repu...

Just one mile east of Route 76, US Highway 11 crosses over Natural Bridge, a rock formation recognized in the early nineteenth century as one of the wonders of the new American republic. The bridge is a natural formation, probably the result of an underground river that carved through original rock to leave only the bridge intact. The fact that Highway 11 was constructed on top of this remarkable...

Irish Creek flows almost fifteen miles from the headwaters near the crest of the Blue Ridge until it passes under the bridge that carries cyclists along Route 76. The name of the creek references a connection back to an earlier era, where this region of the country was settled by descendants from the British Isles. The crossing is also suggestive of another dimension of Route 76 across much of Vir...

Cyclists in Virginia may occasionally see a specialized license plate on cars with the title: Blue Ridge Parkway. The license depicts a series of mountain ranges in shades of blue with a sky in varying shades of pale yellow. The Tye River Gap is a mountain pass where Route 76 travels along the Blue Ridge Parkway, offering stunning views into the adjoining valley. The Blue Ridge Parkway provides an...

Less than a mile below where Route 76 intersects with the Blue Ridge Parkway at Rockfish Gap, a new rails-to-trails pathway allows visitors to walk or ride through a tunnel carved for almost a mile, from one side of the ridge to the other. The Blue Ridge Tunnel, built in the nineteenth century, was described when it opened as “one of the wonders of the age.” After remaining inactive as a railway t...

The section of Route 76 on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains is also known as the Monticello American Viticulture Area, which designates thirty distinctive varieties of grapes used in making wine. The name, Monticello, recognizes that Thomas Jefferson shaped the first efforts to make wine in this region in the decades before and after the American revolution. Watts Branch, which flows...

As cyclists ride through downtown Charlottesville, two monuments on the edge of the University of Virginia campus provide two starkly different representations of Virginia’s history: a statue to Thomas Jefferson and a memorial to the enslaved people who built the university. The contrast between the two monuments in design and meaning is profound, respectively recognizing individual leadership and...

A historical marker for C. E. Abrams school, which provided high school education to African American pupils during the era of segregation, is located on the grounds of Fluvanna Middle School in central Virginia, along route 76 between Richmond and Charlottesville. In recent years, the history of African American education in the twentieth century has been remembered with museum exhibits and histo...

Like many churches along rural roads, Mt. Gilead Baptist Church on Shannon Hill Road is located at a crossroads, but is apparently far from any other community center or local services. Despite this apparent isolation, Mt. Gilead Baptist Church has a history that extends back almost two hundred years, to a moment when Protestant religious enthusiasm transformed the relationship between Virginians...

The town of Mineral, located along Route 76 north of Richmond, received its name to demonstrate the importance of mining to the community. The region surrounding Mineral City was a center of gold mining in Virginia for decades. Elsewhere in the state, mining operations extracted iron ore, etc and especially coal to drive industrial production in Virginia, nationally, and even globally. Yet an econ...

Farms are a common sight for cyclists riding Route 76 across Virginia. Virginia’s farm history extends back more than five hundred years, as crops and livestock were central to Native American household and community practices well before the arrival of Europeans. An exploration of Virginia agriculture along Route 76 illustrates changes in production, distribution, and dissemination, as well as re...

Church congregations, just like church buildings, have a history. The people who attend a church may be connected by shared location, family allegiance, or generational connections as much as they are by commitment to a particular denomination, theology, or doctrine. History can also divide communities. These divisions may result from theological disputes, organizational changes, or personal disag...