The Mountain Laurel
The Journal of Mountain Life

Visit us on FaceBookGenerations of Memories
from the
Heart of the Blue Ridge


  • Memories of a vanishing era

    Left to right: Coy Oliver Yeatts, mountain philosopher and nature lover; Ella Hughes Boyd, midwife and grit best describe this wonderful lady; Adam Clement, beekeeper extraordinaire. They are just a few among hundreds who have shared their stories and memories in The Mountain Laurel. Their stories are a national treasure.

  • Picturesque Blue Ridge Backroads

    Discover the Real Blue Ridge

    Scenes like this are just around the next bend or over the next hill along the hundreds of miles of backroads you'll discover with our easy to follow self-guided Backroad Tours.

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  • The Stoneman Family

    A Heritage of Mountain Music

    It was more than a concert, it was a rare privilege to be attending the Stoneman Family Festival at Willis, Virginia in August. The reason it was more than a concert was that family members from Maryland and Tennessee traveled here for a reunion.

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  • Making Old Fashion Mountain Molasses

    B. L. (Bunny) and Tella Mae Cockram

    B.L. (Bunny) and Tella Mae Cockram are each 73 years old. They’ve been married for 50 years and since 1935, home for them has been their 60 acre farm in the Mountain View section of Meadows of Dan, Virginia. Tella Mae has a hundred laying hens and she sells eggs to a lot of the folks here-'bouts. In addition to the 100 laying hens, she and Bunny have 50 head of cattle and 25 head of sheep.

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  • Woodrow (Woody) Dalton on the old Appalachian Trail

    Arrowhead Marker built by John Barnard

    The original route of the Appalachian Trail crossed the Pinnacles of Dan, traversed the Dan River Gorge and climbed Indian Ladder to the plateau known locally as the Rich Bent. This path carried hikers through some of the most breathtakingly beautiful terrain the Blue Ridge Mountains have to offer. Earl Shaffer on his historic first ever through hike of the entire Appalachian Trail in one season, passed through this area and described it ...

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1. The Mayberry Willows Weep
(Mountain People)
... and would, share his opinions with a friend, but he was man enough to share his fears as well. Response to his articles soon proved he had nothing to fear and he began signing his work, "Y.O.C.," which ...
Created on 01 August 1984
2. Camping and Eeling On The River Dan
(Appalachian Trail)
By Y.O.C. © 1984 Issue: July, 1984 In the teens and twenties, this was a great thing for lots of folks to do. Several families had moved out of parts of these mountains a few years before and some ...
Created on 01 July 1984
3. Dan River Gorge - The Grand Canyon of the East
(Appalachian Trail)
... we'd like to introduce to you this wild rugged area through the following photographs and the accompanying article written by Y.O.C. , who recalls camping in the "Gorge" during the early part of this century. ...
Created on 01 July 1984
4. Why I Never Made a Fox Hunter
(Mountain Memories)
By Y.O.C. © 1984 Issue: April, 1984 “One of my long-remembered hunts” In the winter of 1924, there came a large snowfall. It began one night and snowed all day the next day, but was tapering off ...
Created on 01 April 1984
5. 80 Years Observing Bees
(Mountain Memories)
By Y.O.C. © 1984 Issue: March, 1984 (Editors Note: In last months Mountain Laurel, we featured a story, “Half A Hundred Springs of Mayberry”. This article was written by an elderly resident of this ...
Created on 01 March 1984
6. The Half A Hundred Springs Of Mayberry
(Mountain Memories)
Y.O.C. © 1984 Issue: February, 1984 Editors Note: This accounting was written by a person who witnessed the birth of our century, whose hand once held a dipper or a curled leaf at every one of ...
Created on 01 February 1984