WYTHEVILLE, Virginia — Most people meet this town zooming past it at 70 miles an hour.
asserted
people → meet → miles
Interstate 77 comes up out of North Carolina.
asserted
Interstate → come → Carolina
Interstate 81 runs down the Great Valley toward Bristol.
asserted
Interstate → run → Bristol
They cross here, share a few miles of pavement, and then split again.
asserted
They → cross → pavement
Truckers stop for diesel.
asserted
Truckers → stop → diesel
Families stop for a bathroom.
asserted
Families → stop → bathroom
Then they are gone.
asserted
they → go → ?
They miss the better road.
asserted
They → miss → road
U.S. 11 runs right through downtown as Main Street.
asserted
U.S. → run → Street
In this part of Virginia it is also called the Lee Highway.
asserted
it → call → Virginia
Before that it was the Great Road, the wagon road that carried settlers south out of Pennsylvania and Maryland and down the valley toward Cumberland Gap.
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that → carry → Gap
Virginia now signs the corridor as the Wilderness Road: Virginia’s Heritage Migration Route.
asserted
Virginia → sign → Road
About 10 miles east, at Fort Chiswell, long hunters set out in 1761 for the country beyond the mountains.
asserted
hunters → set → mountains
On March 10, 1775, Daniel Boone and some 30 axmen set out from the Long Island of the Holston, near present-day Kingsport, Tennessee, to cut a path through Cumberland Gap into Kentucky.
asserted
Boone → set → Kentucky
The crown had banned settlement beyond the mountains.
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crown → ban → mountains
They went anyway.
asserted
They → go → ?
Hundreds of thousands of settlers followed, and many of them came down this valley to get there.
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many → follow → valley
Virginia and Kentucky spent last year marking the anniversary with reenactors, relay hikes, and a ceremonial ax carried from Kingsport to Fort Boonesborough.
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Virginia → spend → Boonesborough
This year the country marks its own 250th.
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country → mark → 250th
The two anniversaries belong together.
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anniversaries → belong → ?
The road came first.
asserted
road → come → ?
It carried the push west before there was a United States to push.
asserted
It → carry → push
And the people who stopped along the way, who decided the next valley was far enough, built Appalachia.
asserted
valley → stop → Appalachia
They are still building it.
asserted
They → build → it
That part of the story did not end in 1775, or in 1872, or in 1960.
asserted
part → end → 1960
It is happening on Main Street right now.
asserted
It → happen → Street
Now an empty one is hard to find.
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one → find → ?
Two breweries opened.
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breweries → open → ?
So did a Vietnamese bakery.
asserted
bakery → do → ?
The Millwald Theatre, dark since 2006, reopened in December 2022 with a hometown flat-picker on the bill.
asserted
Theatre → reopen → bill
Apartments are coming back to the floors above the shops, the way the Bollings once lived over theirs.
asserted
Bollings → come → theirs
This spring, a town of about 8,000 people won one of three Great American Main Street Awards, beating out places up to 50 times its size.
asserted
town → win → places
Not every promise was kept.
asserted
promise → keep → ?
Out by the interstate, a glove factory that was supposed to bring nearly 2,500 jobs went partway up and never opened.
asserted
that → suppose → jobs
The county has fewer people than it did five years ago.
asserted
it → have → people
It is people deciding to stay, and building where they are.
asserted
they → decide → ?
That is how it has always worked on this road.
asserted
it → work → road
Downtown, music plays from speakers set along the brick sidewalks.
asserted
music → play → sidewalks
A 30-foot yellow pencil has hung over Main Street since the early 1960s.
asserted
pencil → hang → 1960s
On East Main, Skeeter’s has been selling hot dogs with mustard, onion, and chili since 1925.
asserted
Skeeter → sell → 1925
…and 145 more, not listed.
The Aporia
