CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:59).
Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.).
Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 7-7-23.
TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the weeks of July 10 and July 17, 2023. This is a revised version of an episode from July 2018.
MUSIC – ~16 sec – instrumental.
That song, by Trevor McKenzie—the title of which will be
revealed later, so as not to spoil the upcoming mystery—opens an episode about a
formerly hoppin’ southwestern Virginia crossroads, whose two-word name tells a
tale of landscape, water, and seasonal aquatic creatures. Have a listen
for about 10 seconds to these mystery sounds, and see if you can guess
this crossroads’ name. The sounds are your hint to the first word of the
name, and here’s a hint for the second word: water on it doesn’t
flow downhill, and people on it tell the truth.
SOUNDS - ~11 sec - Gray Treefrog, Spring Peeper, Green Frog
If you guessed Frog Level, you’re a Virginia geography expert!
Along U.S. Business Route 19 in Tazewell County lies a large, flat, seasonally
wet area that attracts lots of loud amphibians in spring and summer. Just
uphill from that area, where Route 19, U.S. Route 460, and State Route 16 all
meet, the Frog Level gas station plus store and tavern was a popular
spot for gathering, socializing, and politicking from 1932 to 2007. In
2009, the historic building was moved about two miles to a spot adjacent to
Tazewell’s Crab Orchard Museum.
The colorful history of the business included the creation
by bar regulars of the Frog Level Yacht Club, with t-shirts that joked about
refueling schooner vessels. That
whimsical name is also the title of this episode’s opening song, which recalls
the business’s connection to the Prohibition and Great Depression eras.
Tazewell County, Virginia, is by no means the only locality to claim an area
called Frog Level. That water feature-and-creature-based name also is
found, for example, in Caroline County, Virginia; in Waynesville, North
Carolina; in Carter County, Tennessee; and in Fayette County, Alabama. In
Caroline County, Frog Level is an area between Boot Swamp and Herring Creek, in
the Mattaponi River watershed. In the
North Carolina and Alabama cases, the name was applied to low, flat areas where
the first railroad tracks were laid. And in Tennessee, Frog Level is a
remote, mountainous area of streams, waterfalls, bogs, and—one can
presume—seasonally breeding and calling frogs.
Other wildlife-based names also add a natural-resource perspective to
Virginia’s geography and history. The Commonwealth is home to Buffalo
Gap, Clam, Dolphin, Ducks Store, Possum Trot, and many others. But, at
least from a water perspective, creature place names don’t get much more descriptive,
or fun, than Frog Level.
Thanks to Trevor McKenzie for permission to use part of
“Frog Level Yacht Club,” from his album “Generational Things,” and we close
with about 30 more seconds of that song.
MUSIC
- ~32 sec – Lyrics: “With that calypso beat it always sounded so neat on the
five-string, and an empty gas can could always double as a drum. I know it’s fantasy and my mind plays tricks
on my memory, but that’s how I recall the Frog Level Yacht Club.”
SHIP’S BELL
Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water
Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources
and Environment. For more Virginia water
sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call
the Water Center at (540) 231-5624. Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of
“Shenandoah” to open and close this episode.
In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.
AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This Virginia Water Radio episode revises and replaces Episode 431, 7-30-18.
The frog sounds heard in this episode—all recorded by
Virginia Water Radio in Blacksburg, Va., on May 23, 2013—were Gray Tree Frog,
Green Frog, and Spring Peeper.
“Frog Level Yacht Club,” from the album “Generational Things,” is copyright by
Trevor McKenzie, used with permission.
More information about Trevor McKenzie is available online at http://www.trevormckenzie.com/.
Virginia Water Radio thanks Jess Jones, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, for suggesting and helping with the previous version of this episode in 2018.
Click
here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the
“Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this
episode. More information about Mr.
Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com.
IMAGES
(Photographs are by Virginia Water Radio.)
SOURCES USED FOR AUDIO AND OFFERING MORE INFORMATION
City of Fayette, Alabama, “A Brief History of Fayette,”
online at http://fayetteal.org/about/.
Crab Orchard Museum, online at https://www.craborchardmuseum.com/.
DeLorme/Garmin Company, Virginia with
Washington, D.C., Atlas and Gazetteer, Ninth Edition, 2021.
Frog Level Farm, Aylett, Va. (King William County), online at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Frog-Level-Farm/161088237254620.
Frog Level Volunteer Fire Department (Caroline County), online at https://www.facebook.com/Frog-Level-Volunteer-Fire-Department-152122678162630/.
Historic Frog Level Merchants
Association, “Historic Background of Waynesville [Haywood County, N.C.] &
Frog Level History,” online at http://www.historicfroglevel.com/frog-level-history/. (This Web site was accessed in 2018; as of 7-10-23, the site stated that it is “under maintenance.”)
Kevin Kittredge, Fans
of Frog Level Service Station preserve Tazewell County icon by moving it a hop,
skip and jump away, Roanoke Times,
3/26/11.
Bill Lohmann, Welcome
to Frog Level, a short hop to good living, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 10/28/15 (on the Caroline County, Va.,
community called Frog Level).
Mark W. Peacock, “Appalachian Treks/Frog Level,” 8/24/14 (describing an area in
Carter County, Tenn.), online at http://appalachiantreks.blogspot.com/2014/08/frog-level.html.
Joe Tennis, Hopping
Along: Work under way to restore Frog Level store, Bristol Herald-Courier, 6/3/10.
RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES
All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html). For other frog episodes, see the “Amphibians” subject category.
Following are links to some other episodes on Virginia geography. For other episodes about water-related
places, see particularly the “History” and “Rivers, Streams, and Other Surface
Waters” subject categories.
A walk across Virginia – Episode 110, 5-14-12.
Cumberland Gap – Episode 544, 9-28-20.
Exploration of the Chesapeake Bay – Episode 140, 12-10-12.
Forks in waterways – Episode 545, 10-5-20.
Fort Valley – Episode 331, 8-29-16.
Geography in general – Episode 265, 5-11-15.
Mountain gaps – Episode 288, 11-2-15.
River origins of Virginia's signers of the Declaration of Independence – Episode 220, 6-30-14.
Virginia connections to the Ohio River Valley – Episode 422, 5-28-18.
Virginia’s National Park Service Units – Episode 229, 9-1-14.
Virginia Peninsula and Historic Triangle – Episode 273, 7-6-15.
Virginia rivers quiz – Episode 586, 7-19-21.
Virginia's Western or Alleghany Highlands – Episode 577, 5-17-21.
Water and settlement of Roanoke – Episode 181, 9-30-13.
Watersheds – Episode 581, 6-14-21; Episode 582, 6-21-21; Episode 583, 6-28-21; Episode 585, 7-12-21; Episode 587, 7-26-21; Episode 588, 8-2-21; Episode 589, 8-9-21.
Water Places in U.S. Civil Rights History – Episode 619, 3-7-22.
FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION
Following are some Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) that may be supported by this episode’s audio/transcript, sources, or other information included in this post.
2020 Music SOLs
SOLs at various grade levels that call for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.”
2018 Science SOLs
Grades K-4: Living
Systems and Processes
3.5 – Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems support a diversity
of organisms.
4.3 – Organisms, including humans, interact with one another
and with the nonliving components in the ecosystem.
Grades K-5: Earth
Resources
4.8 – Virginia has important natural resources.
2015 Social
Studies SOLs
Virginia Studies
Course
VS.1 – Impact of geographic features on people, places, and
events in Virginia history.
VS.10 – Knowledge of government, geography, and economics in
present-day Virginia.
United States History:
1865-to-Present Course
USII.6 – Social, economic, and technological changes from
the 1890s to 1945.
World Geography Course
WG.2 – How selected physical and ecological processes shape
the Earth’s surface, including climate, weather, and how humans influence their
environment and are influenced by it.
WG.3 – How regional landscapes reflect the physical
environment and the cultural characteristics of their inhabitants.
Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/instruction
Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade
levels.
Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade.
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten.
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade.
Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade.
Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school.
Episode 483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school.
Episode 524, 5-11-20 – on sounds by water-related animals, for elementary school through high school.
Episode 531, 6-29-20 – on various ways that animals get water, for 3rd and 4th grade.
Episode 539, 8-24-20 – on basic numbers and facts about Virginia’s water resources, for 4th and 6th grade.
Episode 606, 12-6-21 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
