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FALL 2016 ISSUE 02 / VOL. 01
To enter the Fork Mountain Baptist Church, you walk over a creek on a wood and steel bridge that takes you right to the front door.
The Grey Gables Inn, and its 10 rooms, at Rugby, remind one of the grace of the Victorian lifestyle.
made with hard work, growing a couple of acres of tobacco or going into the coal mines. Not much money in tobacco anymore, and most mines have closed, with light industry and clerking in a mall taking over.
The real charm of riding in these parts is the nature of the terrain, the valleys, ridges and many rivers, with roads following the contours of the land. In 1933, the Roosevelt administration saw that this area had been hard hit by the Depression, and went on a job-making spree. Everybody wanted electricity, and hydroelectrics were a good way to go, so the Tennessee Valley Authority was created and dams began to go up. The first to be completed was the Norris Dam, blocking the Clinch River, which began sending out electricity in 1936.
Take a run over Clinch Mountain on U. S. Route 25E and at the top you’ ll see the Lookout Restaurant... stop in for a piece of vinegar pie. Back when someone wanted to bake a lemon pie and lemons were scarce, apple cider vinegar would be substituted. This place still makes them fresh every day, and while the taste is interesting I’ d have to say I prefer the lemon variety.