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Wandering Back-Roads West Virginia
Read MoreMore than 35 years ago, I began wandering West Virginia in search of stories for the state’s traditional life magazine, Goldenseal. I am still wandering, writing and photographing for Goldenseal, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this spring. To mark that milestone in North Central West…
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Years of Wandering
Read MoreFor four decades I have wandered about West Virginia in search of stories for GOLDENSEAL magazine. As I approach my 70th birthday in June 2024 and the 50th anniversary of the magazine in April 2024, I am launching a seven-book series based upon my travels,…
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Coming to My Fathers’ land
Read MoreMy Fathers’ Land book is a sweeping memoir and family history covering nearly 250 years of Feathers in America and West Virginia.
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Chewing the fat at the mill
Read MoreSpend an hour or two shelling corn and chewing the fat with Larry Mustain at his Reed’s Mill, and the conversation eventually comes around to instances of sex in the mill. “We heard a bunch of splashing by that little bridge (over the mill raceway),”…
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Sunday Afternoon with a legend
Read MoreIt was August 16, 2004, when my father and I met Volkmar Wentzel at his home in Aurora, W.Va. He and his wife, Viola, were visiting their farm from Washington, D.C., and agreed to meet me for an interview for Goldenseal Magazine. Mr. Wentzel is…
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Virginia furnace glows for a split second
Read MoreThe stone pyramid stands between Route 26 and Muddy Creek in Preston County, an imposing artifact from the county’s nascent industrial era. The iron furnace was built by Levi Kennet for Harrison Hagans, Brandonville’s foremost entrepreneur, merchant, and promoter. Historian Reardon S. Cuppett claimed it…
