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Description and Travel, Recreation and Sports
Car trips, hiking, biking, camping, canoeing, hunting and fishing, white water rafting, mountain climbing, guidebooks, sports teams
Adams, Paul J. 2016. Smoky Jack: The Adventures of a Dog and His Master on Mount Le Conte [Tenn.; 1925-26.] Edited by Anne Bridges and Ken Wise. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. 178 pp.
Adkins, Leonard M. 2013. Hiking and Traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway: The Only Guide You Will Ever Need, Including GPS, Detailed Maps, and More. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 389 pp.
Adkins, Leonard M. 2013. 50 Hikes in West Virginia: From the Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River [guidebook]. 2nd ed. Woodstock, Vt.: Countryman Press. 288 pp.
Adkins, Leonard M. 2015. Along the Appalachian Trail: West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia. 127 pp. More than 200 historical images.
Akin, William E. 2015. The Middle Atlantic League, 1925-1952: A Baseball History. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 222 pp. “The cities of western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia reached their peaks of population and prosperity in the second quarter of the 20th century. The baseball teams from these towns formed the Middle Atlantic League, the strongest circuit in the low minors and the one with the most alumni to advance to the majors.”
Antonik, John. 2015. Saturday Snapshots: West Virginia University Football [photos, 1891-1914]. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press. 312 pp.
Arvidson, Chris, Scot Pope, and Julie E. Townsend, ed. 2015. Reflections on the New River: New Essays, Poems and Personal Stories. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 188 pp. Writing by thirty-six writers, including Clyde Edgerton, Joseph Bathanti, Patricia D. Beaver, Barbara Presnell, Cat Pleska, Jim Minick, and Sam Shumate. “From its headwaters in western North Carolina near the Tennessee line, the New River runs north 337 miles, cutting through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and West Virginia on its way to the Ohio.”
Badger, Emily. 2015. “The Spirits of Shenandoah” [National Park]. Washington Post, 11 January, 1(F). 2,221 words. Travel/local history essay, with photos and historical maps. http://wapo.st/1Kqs3zQ.
Baker, Chris. 2013. “The Golden Age of Health Springs Tourism in the Rural East Tennessee Valley” [1870s-1930s]. Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 29, no. 1 (Summer): 44-46. “The most prolific mineral water luxury resorts...were located in small crossroad towns along the base of Clinch Mountain in Grainger and Hawkins counties .... The largest of the resorts was Tate Springs near Bean Station.”
Barnett, Bob. 2013. Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press. 429 pp.
Barnett, Bob. 2014. “Minor League Baseball in Charleston” [history; from 1913]. Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Living 40, no. 2 (Summer): 8-15. Attached article: “The Charlies: Recalling Charleston’s Golden Era,” by Mike Whiteford, 16-19.
Barnett, Bob. 2015. “Tee Time in the Mountain State: West Virginia’s Golf History.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 41, no. 2 (Summer): 26-33. “...the country’s first golf course, Oakhurst Links, was built in 1882 on Russell Montague’s farm in Greenbrier County.”
Barnwell, Tim. 2014. Blue Ridge Parkway Vistas: A Comprehensive Identification Guide to What You See from the Many Overlooks. Asheville, N.C.: Numinous Editions. 120 pp.
Berg, Adam. 2015. “‘To Conquer Myself’: The New Strenuosity and the Emergence of ‘Thru-hiking’ on the Appalachian Trail in the 1970s.” Journal of Sport History 42, no. 1 (Spring): 1-19.
Bernstein, Danny. 2013. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail Across North Carolina: Walking a Thousand Miles Through Wildness, Culture and History. Charleston, S.C.: History Press. 174 pp. Contents: Starting in the Mountains | Continuing Through the Mountains | The Piedmont | The Coastal Plains | The Outer Banks.
Boardman, Samantha J. 2015. “Roadside America and the Engine(s) of Progress.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography 139, no. 3 (October): 363-365. Roadside America (Berks Co., Pa.) is an indoor miniature village and railway created in 1935 which explores and dramatizes the relationship between Pennsylvania’s energy sources and its history.
Britcher, Craig. 2014. “We Are Now the Pirates: The 1890 Burghers and Alleghenys.” Western Pennsylvania History 97, no. 1 (Spring): 40-53. Origins of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
Calestro-McDonald, Julie E., and Peggy Calestro. 2014. Lost and Found in Appalachia. North Charleston, S.C.: CreateSpace. 92 pp. A personal chronicle, with photos, by this mother-daughter duo of a number of back-road trips through Appalachian Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia taken over twenty years.
Clark, Jack. 2014. “Tick Lilly & The Junkyard Derby.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 40, no. 3 (Fall): 60-61. Navy test pilot Tick Lilly, who died in a 1948 plane crash, got his start an as informal race car track driver in 1940s Raleigh County.
Clauson-Wicker, Su. 2013. West Virginia: Scenic Routes & Byways. 2nd ed. Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press. 190 pp.
Clauson-Wicker, Su. 2014. West Virginia Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places [eight subregions]. 8th ed. Foreward by Jay Rockefeller. Off the Beaten Path Series. Guilford, Conn.: GPP Travel. 243 pp.
Cook, Joe. 2013. Etowah River User’s Guide. Georgia River Networks Guidebook series. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 163 pp. From its headwaters near Dahlonega, 164 miles to the Coosa River in Rome.
Davis, Jennifer Pharr. 2013. Called Again: A Story of Love and Triumph. New York: Beaufort Books. 298 pp. Autobiography by Davis who became the Appalachian Trail record holder in 2011 after hiking 2,181 miles in 46 days.
Dunnavant, Keith. 2015. Montana: The Biography of Football’s Joe Cool. New York: Thomas Dunne. 326 pp. Begins with Joe Montana’s early years in the Monongahela River town of New Eagle, Pa., before he became the San Francisco 49er’s Super Bowl-winning quarterback during the 1980s.
Feather, Carl E. 2013. “Eating Green with a View in Morgan County.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 3 (Fall): 68-69. Panorama at the Peak restaurant opposite Panorama Point on State Route 9, near Berkeley Springs.
Feather, Carl E. 2013. “Irish Road Bowling in Wheeling.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 1 (Spring): 58-59.
Finoli, David, and Thomas Aikens. 2013. Forbes Field [Pa.; vintage photos]. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia. 128 pp. Legendary baseball stadium, built in 1909 and home to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Frye, Jason. 2015. Moon Blue Ridge Parkway Road Trip: Including Shenandoah & Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. Berkeley, Calif.: Avalon Travel. 357 pp. Narrative guidebook with maps, directory information, and five geographic subdivisions: Shenandoah Valley; Virginia Blue Ridge; North Carolina High Country; Asheville and the Southern Blue Ridge, and Great Smoky Mountains.
Ghaman, Allie. 2016. “From Georgia to Maine: What I Learned on a 6-Month Hike along the Appalachian Trail.” Washington Post, 21 February, 1(F). 2,750 words. http://wpo.st/C8FE1.
Glaser, Leah S. 2015. “Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography139, no. 3 (October): 353-55. National Park interpretive history of a 19th-century iron making furnace and community (Berks Co.).
High, Mike. [1997] 2015. The C&O Canal Companion: A Journey through Potomac History. 2nd ed. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. 405 pp. “...a mile-by-mile, lock-by-lock tour of the 184-mile Potomac River waterway and towpath that stretches from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland.”
Hörst , Eric J. [2001] 2013. Rock Climbing: Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland [guidebook]. 2nd ed. Guilford, Conn.: FalconGuides. 346 pp.
Houck, Oliver A. 2014. Downstream Toward Home: A Book of Rivers. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 239 pp. Travelogue spanning six decades exploring over thirty North American rivers including West Virginia’s Greenbrier and Blackwater, and Virginia’s Shenandoah.
Jinhee, Jun, Gerard Kyle, Alan Graefe, and Robert Manning. 2015. “An Identity-Based Conceptualization of Recreation Specialization” [Appalachian Trail hikers]. Journal of Leisure Research 47, no. 4: 425-443.
Jones, K. Randell. 2013. The Daniel Boone Wagon Train: A Journey through ‘the Sixties’ [N.C.; historical reenactment; recollections]. Winston-Salem, N.C.: Daniel Boone Footsteps. 274 pp. Maps, illustrations. “From 1963 to 1973, groups gathered to...follow in the footsteps of Daniel Boone” on a four-day trip ending in Boone, N.C.
Kates, James. 2013. “A Path Made of Words: The Journalistic Construction of the Appalachian Trail” [1921-1937]. American Journalism 30, no. 1 (Winter): 112-134. “...the path was ‘made of words,’ in the sense that journalists projected multiple meanings on the landscape to motivate volunteers and, when necessary, to win government cooperation assuring its completion.”
Kephart, Horace. [1916, 1917] 2011. Camping and Woodcraft: A Handbook for Vacation Campers and for Travelers in the Wilderness. Two Volumes in One. A Special Edition, with an Introduction by George Ellison and Janet McCue (vii-lxxv), and photographs by Horace Kephart and George Masa. Gatlinburg, Tenn.: Great Smoky Mountains Association. Vol. One, 1-381 (Sources, 1-6); Vol. Two, 1-425. Originally published: New York: Macmillan. “A standard manual for campers and a veritable outdoor enthusiast’s bible.” Kephart is author of the classic, Our Southern Highlanders (1913).
Kruse, Robert J., II. 2015. “Point Pleasant, West Virginia: Making a Tourism Landscape in an Appalachian Town.” Southeastern Geographer 55, no. 3 (Fall): 313-337. “Point Pleasant markets itself as the location of alleged sightings of the Mothman, a monstrous creature depicted in a film starring Richard Gere. Point Pleasant also gained national attention in 1967 when the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River resulting in over 40 deaths. This project provides an analysis of the ways in which the heritage and paranormal tourism narratives are interwoven with narratives and markers of the bridge disaster.”
Kugel, Seth. 2015. “A Bike Tour of Eastern Kentucky’s Back Roads.” New York Times, 9 July, Travel section. 1,967 word account by an urban visitor, plus 10-photo slideshow and map: Lexington to Paintsville. http://nyti.ms/1UGCK6C.
LaMountain, Allen. 2014. Appalachian League Baseball: Where Rookies Rise. [No location]: Xlibris. 313 pp. “The stories of Minor League boys who rose to become Major League men, and the places where it all began for them”: 1950s to present; Ky., N.C., Tenn., Va., W. Va.
Lesser, Walter A., and Lisa M. Weisse. 2013. The Real Ryman Setter: A History with Stories from the Appalachian Grouse Covers [W. Va.]. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer. 160 pp. Breeding, training and upland hunting grouse and woodcock with English Setters.
Martin, Michael S. 2013. “‘The Wilderness Was Growing Wilder’: The Limits of Cartographic Knowledge in Philip Pendleton Kennedy’s The Blackwater Chronicle and David Hunter Strother’s The Virginia Canaan” [1853; 1857]. Journal of Appalachian Studies 19, no. 1-2 (Spring-Fall): 46-58. In both travel accounts,” the first-person narrators repeatedly recount their perambulations in the West Virginia wilderness as a process of losing their bearings or finding the limits of certain forms of knowledge about a region or place.”
McGehee, Nancy Gard, B. B. Boley, Jeffrey C. Hallo, John A. McGee, William Norman, Chi-Ok Oh, and Cari Goetcheus. 2013. “Doing Sustainability: An Application of an Inter-Disciplinary and Mixed-Method Approach to a Regional Sustainable Tourism Project.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 21, no.3 (April): 355-375. “The research took place in a two-county area straddling the Blue Ridge Parkway in...Virginia.”
McKinney, Maggie. 2013. “Has Appalachia Gone Completely Global?” Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 28, no. 2 (Winter): 19-21. Special issue, “Global Appalachia.” “I personally will never live long enough to do and re-do all the things I love in Appalachia .... If I want to meet people from other countries, I need go no further than my local convenience stores” [Morganton, Burke Co., N.C.].
Miller, D. Jason. 2015. “BackPacked Architecture: The Appalachian Trail and Its ‘Primitive Huts’.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 21, no. 2 (Fall): 247-262. “... insight into a bygone era in which social works projects--such as New Deal programs that formed the Civilian Conservation Corps--and the need for modest backcountry shelters helped construct the world’s most popular recreational footpath.”
Mittlefehldt, Sarah. 2013. Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics. Foreword by William Cronon. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 255 pp. Contents: A progressive footpath | The path of least resistance | Federalizing America’s foot trails | Fallout from federalization | Acquiring the corridor | The Appalachian Trail and the rise of the new right.
Moeckel, Thorpe. 2013. “A Day on the Gauley.” Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review 62, no.2. 6,023 words. Creative nonfiction essay on whitewater-rafting West Virginia’s Gauley River. http://shenandoahliterary.org/622/a-day-on-the-gauley/.
Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 2015. “Along the Appalachian Trail” [Vermont]. Natural History 123, no. 1 (February): 44-45.
Molloy, Johnny. 2013. Best Easy Day Hikes: New River Gorge [W. Va.]. Guilford, Conn.: FalconGuides. 103 pp. Guidebook to 20 hikes.
Molloy, Johnny. 2014. Hiking North Carolina’s National Forests: 50 Can’t-Miss Trail Adventures in the Pisgah, Nantahala, Uwharrie, and Croatan National Forests. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 243 pp.
Montgomery, Ben. 2014. Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. 277 pp. Sixty-seven year old Emma Gatewood was the first woman to solo hike the 2000-mile trail (1955), as well at the first person to walk it three times.
O’Brien, Jim. 2015. Golden Arms: Six Hall of Fame Quarterbacks from Western Pennsylvania. Introduction by Danny Marino. Pittsburgh: James P. O’Brien Publishing. 608 pp. Johnny Unitas, George Blanda, Danny Marino, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, and Jim Kelly. See also: America’s Cradle of Quarterbacks: Western Pennsylvania’s Football Factory from Johnny Unitas to Joe Montana (2014), by Wayne Stewart.
Oates, Cynthia. 2014. “‘Honoring the Apple’: Mountain State Apple Harvest Festival” [Martinsburg; October]. Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 40, no. 3 (Fall): 34-39.
Parham, Jim. 2013. Backpacking Overnights: North Carolina Mountains, South Carolina Upstate. Almond, N.C.: Milestone Press. 213 pp. Fifty excursions with maps, hiking and driving directions, and campsite locations. Destinations include Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, Linville Gorge Wilderness, and more.
Reed, Mary T. 2013. Hiking West Virginia [guidebook; 50 trails]. 2nd ed. Guilford, Conn.: Falcon. 275 pp.
Ridenour, Amy C. 2013. Historic Inns of Asheville [N.C.; vintage photos]. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia. 127 pp.
Sauceman, Fred. 2013. “Getting Sight in West Virginia.” Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 28, no. 2 (Winter): 22-24. Irish road bowling with a 28-ounce iron ball over a 1.2 mile course. Sidebar article by Sarah Thomas, “Fau Gh A Balla Ch!: Clear the Way for Irish Road Bowling.”
Searles, John. 2013. “Getting Into the Spirit.” New York Times, 10 October. 1,667 words, with a video clip, “Ghost Hunting” (2:17 min.). Travel article on the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, W. Va., built 1858-1881as a mental hospital. http://nyti.ms/15XCERN.
Setzer, Lynn. 2013. Tar Heel History on Foot: Great Walks Through 400 Years of North Carolina’s Fascinating Past. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 348 pp. Thirty-four walks with descriptions and short histories, including: Murphy: the Trail of Tears | Cataloochee: ghost of a remote mountain community | Mountain discoverers: the magnificent wanderers | Cooleemee: mill hill | Pinehurst and Asheville: favorite playgrounds | Fontana Dam: lumber, power, and personal quests | Mt. Mitchell: North Carolina’s first state park | A new profession for America: forestry along the Shut-In Trail.
Siegrist, Heidi. 2015. “Walking” [creative nonfiction; Appalachian Trail]. Appalachian Heritage 43, no. 2 (Spring): 30-43.
Simon, R. Bryan. 2013. Hiking & Biking in the New River Gorge: A Trail User’s Guide [W. Va.]. Silt, Colo.: Wolverine Publishing. 352 pp. Detailed guidebook to 113 trails in 21 areas. Descriptions, maps, graphs, directory information, photographs, index.
Skinner, Elizabeth, and Charlie Skinner. 2014. Bicycling the Blue Ridge: A Guide to the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. 5th ed. Birmingham, Ala.: Menasha Ridge Press. 155 pp.
Sluder, Lan. 2013. Amazing Asheville: Guide to Asheville and the Beautiful North Carolina Mountains. Asheville, N.C.: Equator. 408 pp. Contents: Visiting Asheville and the mountains | Asheville: what to do and see | Asheville: where to eat and drink | Asheville: where to stay | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | Blue Ridge Parkway | Biltmore House and Biltmore Estate | Outdoor adventures and activities | Day trips and visits to nearby towns | Resources: books, movies, websites.
Spira, Timothy P. 2015. Waterfalls and Wildflowers in the Southern Appalachians: Thirty Great Hikes. Southern Gateways Guide series. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 279 pp.
Stepp, James L., and Lin Stepp. 2014. The Afternoon Hiker: A Guide to Casual Hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains. Knoxville, Tenn.: Mountain Hill Press. 227 pp.
Stewart, Wayne. 2014. America’s Cradle of Quarterbacks: Western Pennsylvania’s Football Factory from Johnny Unitas to Joe Montana. Carlisle, Pa.: Tuxedo Press. 187 pp. “Montana, Unitas, Marino, Namath, Kelly, Blanda .... Sundays in Western Pennsylvania featured independent and semi-pro football played largely by working men who earned their living in the factories, mills, and railroad yards .... [Their] grandsons...now rule the gridiron.” See also: Golden Arms: Six Hall of Fame Quarterbacks from Western Pennsylvania (2014), by Jim O’Brien.
Tanner, Borgon. 2014. “Waterborne Entertainment on the Upper Ohio River.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 40, no. 2 (Summer): 38-43. History of steam-powered showboats of the 1930s featuring calliope music and dramatic performances, and other excursion boats featuring live music and dancing.
Tennis, Joe. 2014. Virginia Rail Trails: Crossing the Commonwealth. Charleston, S.C.: History Press. 254 pp. Guidebook to 45 trails, 18 of which appear to be in Appalachian counties.
Terry, David P., and Sarah Vartabedian. 2013. “Alone but Together: Eminent Performance on the Appalachian Trail.” Text & Performance Quarterly 33, no. 4 (October): 344-360. “...an ethnographic account of long-distance hikers on the Appalachian Trail.”
Whiteford, Mike. 2014. “The Charlies: Recalling Charleston’s Golden Era.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 40, no. 2 (Summer): 16-19. The Charleston Charlies professional baseball team began in 1971 and included infielder Tony La Russa.
Wise, Kenneth. 2014. Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains. 2nd ed. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. 510 pp., plus folded map. Guide to 125 official trails recognized by the Park Service.
Zumbrun, Francis Champ. 2016. “Edison, Ford and Firestone Travel Through Allegany County in the Summer of 1921” [Md.]. Journal of the Alleghenies 52: 9-32. Day by day recounting; camping; Rt. 40.