Monday, September 30, 2013

Episode 181 (9-30-13): "Big Lick" by the Celtibillies, and the Water-and-wildlife Roots of Roanoke, Virginia

Click to listen to episode (2:43)

TRANSCRIPT


From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of September 30, 2013.



This week, we feature a music selection with a title that honors the water-related origin and historic name of a Virginia Blue Ridge city.  Have a listen for about 50 seconds.



MUSIC.



You’ve been listening to part of “Big Lick,” performed by the Celtibillies on their 2005 CD, “The Shoemaker’s Child,” on Zygoat Records.  Group members Tim Sauls and Jack Hinshelwood developed this tune and named it to honor Roanoke, Virginia, which was called “Big Lick” in the 1800s.  Now home to about 100,000 people and a center of transportation and commerce for southwestern Virginia, Roanoke began as a settlement near river-valley marshes that attracted buffalo, deer, and elk seeking water and natural salts dissolved in the water.  Those watering spots, called “licks” at the time, in turn attracted Native Americans and then European settlers.  Hundreds of years later, in an interesting water-history twist, current elk-restoration efforts that started in southwestern Virginia are being aided by construction of watering holes on lands formerly mined for coal.  Thanks to Mr. Sauls and Mr. Hinshelwood for permission to use this week’s music.
For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

SHOW NOTES 

[All Internet addresses mentioned were functional as of 9/30/13]



Elk in 2008, location not indicated.  Photo by Robert Karges II, made available for public use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov, accessed 9-30-13.
  

Acknowledgments:
“Big Lick” (part of the medley “Abe’s Retreat/Big Lick”) and “The Shoemaker’s Child” are copyright by The Celtibillies, used with permission.  More information on The Celtibillies is available online at http://celtibillies.com/.

Sources:
Information on the City of Roanoke was taken from the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, online at  http://www.visitroanokeva.com/visitors/history/roanoke-history/; and from the U.S. Census Bureau’s “State and County Quick Facts,” online at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51770.html.

Information on modern-day watering-holes for elk in southwestern Virginia was taken from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ (VDGIF) “Outdoors Report” of 9/25/13, online at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/outdoor-report/2013/09/25/ (see the elk-restoration article in the “Wildlife Conservations Projects Update” section).

More information on elk restoration in Virginia is available from VDGIF online at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/elk/management-plan/.



Recent Virginia Water News and Other Information
            For news, events, and resources relevant to Virginia's water resources, grouped into categories, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper, available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/

Monday, September 23, 2013

Episode 180 (9-23-13): Annual Virginia Waterways Cleanups


This episode was re-done for the week of August 31, 2015, available at this link:

http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/2015/08/episode-180-revisited-8-31-15-update-of.html.

Please visit there for a 3 min./23 sec. introduction to the annual effort coordinated by Clean Virginia Waterways, at Longwood University, to get the trash out of Virginia's water bodies.







Monday, September 16, 2013

Episode 179 (9-16-13): Twenty-two Miles along the New River Trail

Click to listen to episode (2:52)

TRANSCRIPT

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of September 16, 2013.

This week, we feature another series of mystery sounds.  Have a listen for about a minute, and see if you can guess what water-based Virginia state park was the location of these sounds.  And here’s a hint: if you think long enough, you’ll be on the right track.

SOUND.


If you guessed the New River Trail State Park, you’re right!  Walkers, bikers, and horseback-riders encounter the sounds and sights of insects, birds, farms, trains, boats, and more along this 57-mile linear park, the longest in Virginia’s state park system.  The park lies on a railroad bed and right-of-way donated to the Commonwealth in 1986 by the Norfolk Southern Railway company.  The rail-line’s development adjacent to the New River built upon the river’s historic role as a transportation corridor and site for settlement and industries.  Across Virginia, over 30 trails are located on or near former railroad beds.  Many of those trails give today’s travelers on foot, two-wheels, or living horses (not the iron kind) a way to have a long listen and look at Virginia’s waterways and their landscapes.

For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

SHOW NOTES

[All Internet addresses mentioned were functional as of 9/16/13]



View along the New River State Park Trail near Draper, Virginia (Pulaski County), August 31, 2013.


View looking southeast from the New River State Park Trail between Draper and Hiwassee, Virginia, August 31, 2013.
Upper section of Claytor Lake (a hydroelectric-power impoundment on the New River) viewed from the New River State Park Trail, August 31, 2013.

Days gone by: an abandoned house along the New River State Park Trail near Hiwassee, Virginia, August 31, 2013.

Acknowledgments:
Eli Heilker helped compile information on the New River Trail State Park for this episode as part of Virginia Tech English Department internship in fall 2013 with the Virginia Water Resources Research Center.

This episode’s sounds were recorded August 31, 2013, during a 22-mile walk along the New River Trail State Park in Pulaski County and the Dora Road Trail that runs along Peak Creek (a New River tributary) from the town of Pulaski to the state park.

Sources:

“New River Trail,” Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/new.shtml.

“Vacations close to home: History rides alongside adventure on Virginia’s

New River Trail,” by Clayton Hensley, Knoxville News Sentinel, August 3, 2013, accessed at http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/aug/03/vacations-close-to-home-history-rides-alongside/, 9/16/13.

“Virginia Home to Many Rails-to-Trails,” Virginia Bicycling Federation, http://www.vabike.org/virginia-rails-to-trails/.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, http://www.railstotrails.org/index.html.


Recent Virginia Water News and Other Information
            For news, events, and resources relevant to Virginia's water resources, grouped into categories, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper, available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/.