Bike 76 VA: The Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast

Host, Tom Ewing , a Professor of History at Virginia Tech, presents the introductory episode for the Bike 76 VA podcast.

As indicated in this episode, Bike 76 VA explores a history of Virginia which is diverse in stories, equitable in thinking about opportunities and challenges, and inclusive of perspectives. Each episode is based on original research using source materials from the era as well as historical analysis from scholars and public historians. The work of local historians provides some of the sources and analysis, thus indicating how these episodes build on the work of community members. Yet this podcast differs from many local histories by situating individuals and families in the broader trajectories of American history over more than five hundred years. This episode, which connects a historic building to a farming community to Indigenous foot paths to a Bikecentennial rider is illustrative of how each episode makes connections between a specific location and broader historical themes.

The location for this episode is an intersection in Montgomery County, just over 350 miles from the starting point in Yorktown and 200 miles from Breaks interstate park, where westbound riders enter Kentucky.

In the spring of 1976, as Bikecentennial riders began to cross the United States on two wheels, a very different procession began a similar journey from the Pacific Coast to the eastern United States. The Trail of Self-Determination was an attempt by American Indian activists to call attention to more than two hundred years of broken promises by the United States government. The 1976 Trail was inspired by several years of activism by the American Indian Movement, founded in the late 1960s to advocate for the rights of indigenous people. The juxtaposition of these two transcontinental trips in 1976, one a recreational tour celebrating two hundred years of American independence and the other a political campaign calling attention to two hundred years of violence, displacement, and oppression, provides an important perspective on this exploration of Virginia history along Route 76. While the Trail of Self-Determination did not cross Virginia, the issues highlighted by this political movement are particularly relevant to the history of Native Americans in the Appalachian region. Exploring this complicated history is particularly timely as the United States looks ahead to the commemoration of 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.

This episode is connected to Breaks Interstate Park, the starting point for eastbound riders in Virginia, and about 550 miles from Yorktown, where westbound riders begin their journey.

About two miles north of Davenport, Route 76 crosses Russell Fork, a mountain creek that winds along the side of the road for nearly thirty miles close to the Kentucky border. Or, to be more historically accurate, the road winds along the path of the river, as the waterway existed in this land long before these routes were established by people walking, riding on horseback, traveling in wagons, driving cars, or riding bicycles. Across Virginia, Route 76 is inseparably connected to waterways. Over and over again, cyclists cross rivers and streams on bridges. Even more commonly, as in the case of Russell Fork near Davenport, cyclists spend considerable time riding alongside the river before they actually cross over the water. It may not be obvious to a cyclist in the mountains of southwest Virginia, but every stream is connected to a broader waterway that shapes the contours of the entire country. In fact, Russell Fork near Davenport is part of the same Mississippi drainage system as the entire length of Route 76 across Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and the eastern part of Colorado. All of the waterways crossed along this route ultimately drain into the Mississippi River and then the Gulf of Mexico. An exploration of how Route 76 is connected to Virginia’s waterways thus provides a basis for thinking about how lands and people are connected by water in ways that can be observed as well as experienced.

This episode is connected to the community of Davenport, located just over 530 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about twenty miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia.

In southwestern Virginia, traditional forms of Appalachian culture are celebrated along the Crooked Road, an 333 mile driving route that includes many milestones in the history of American popular music. The designated stops along the Crooked Road include recording studios, birthplaces of famous musicians, and key moments in performances for public audiences. The road also includes sites of musical festivals, including the Redbud festival each spring in Honecker, a town located along route 76. The Crooked Road recognizes music known by various names, including country, folk, bluegrass, traditional, or Appalachian. In 1976, as cyclists rode through the mountains of Virginia during the Bikecentennial, they often observed local musicians playing along the route. This tradition continues, as music remains integral to the identity and beliefs of Appalachian Virginia as well as contributing to the recreational tourism industry. An appreciation of the complex history of this music provides insights into the synthetic nature of Appalachian culture in the past as well as the present.

This episode is connected to the town of Honaker, located just over 520 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and just under 30 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia.

As cyclists ride through the valleys of southwestern Virginia, the hills are almost entirely covered with trees. It is easy to think that this natural environment has been in place for centuries, since before humans settled the American continent. In fact, across most of the Appalachian region, including southwest Virginia, the forests were almost entirely cut in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The forests that cyclists pass day and day as they ride through western Virginia are relatively recent growths, mostly from the last century or so. The history of clearcutting Appalachian forests reflects the powerful intersection of industrial capitalism and resource extraction. The impact of clearcutting was evident in the destruction of old growth forests, the destabilization of the land, the contamination of creeks and rivers, and the disruption of community identities and individual lives. A few owners of land, mills, and processing sites became very wealthy, many thousands of workers contributed their labor, and the natural resources of the mountains were distributed across the country for use in buildings, ships, and fuel. Clearcutting forests was just the first stage in a history of environmental destruction in pursuit of profit that continues to shape Appalachian communities and cultures. 

This episode is connected to the area where the route crosses Logan Creek, located nearly 500 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and just about 50 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound rides enter Virginia.

In the town of Damascus, Route 76 intersects with the Appalachian Trail in the center of town. Once a year, in May, an estimated 25,000 people attend Appalachian Trail Days in this small town with a regular population of just 650 people. Camping is encouraged in a designated tent city in a town park, hundreds of vendors sell crafts, food, and hiking gear, and a full schedule of music, including many local and regional performers, fills out the days and nights. A highlight of each weekend is the Hiker Parade through the downtown, with thousands walking and other cheering. Spraying hikers with water guns is encouraged. For about forty years, this festival has allowed Damascus to demonstrate its designation as “the friendliest town on the trail,” with the goal of welcoming new hikers and welcoming back hikers and community members who attend regularly. This episode uses the location of Damascus, in far southwestern Virginia, close to the border with North Carolina, to explore the parallel development and divergent paths of two major routes: Route 76 for cyclists and Appalachian Trail for hikers.

This episode is connected to the city of Damascus, about four hundred seventy five miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about seventy five miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia.

In June 1976, as cyclists made their way across the country during the Bikecentennial, a ground-breaking ceremony in a small town in the mountains of Grayson County celebrated plans to open the Troutdale Community Health Clinic. The health clinic was built near the intersection of route 16 and route 603, less than a mile from the route followed by cyclists riding the Bikecentennial in the summer of 1976. A few cyclists might have observed this ground-breaking ceremony or the construction of this facility that continued through the summer and into the fall. An article in a regional newspaper included a photograph of the ground-breaking ceremony, a list of speakers representing regional organizations, and the statement that Troutdale had not had professional medical care for nearly fifty years, since the early 1920s. This timing is suggestive of the history of Troutdale, but of small towns more generally, as it reveals a trajectory where the economic growth of the early twentieth century was not sustained in the subsequent decades. A history of Troutdale thus provides a basis for exploring the history of small town America in the century before the Bikecentennial and in the half-century that has followed.

This episode is connected to the community of Troutdale, located about 450 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and just under 100 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound rides enter Virginia.

Raymond Arthur Byrd was a veteran of World War I, who served with the 807th Pioneer Infantry, a segregated unit fighting in France during the last months of combat in the fall of 1918. After the war, Byrd lived with his wife and three children in Black Lick, located just a few miles north of where route 76 crosses Mill Creek and several miles west of Wytheville. Bird worked as a laborer on a farm owned by a local white family. In the summer of 1926, Byrd was accused of inappropriate sexual relations, arrested, and then murdered while he was locked up in the Wytheville jail. In the summer of 2020, a historical marker to the lynching of Raymond Byrd was placed in downtown Wytheville, along Route 76, due primarily to the sustained efforts of local historian John Johnson. Cyclists in southwestern Virginia thus have an opportunity to view, and reflect upon, the complicated history of racial relations that led to this lynching episode and the subsequent efforts to recognize the long term significance of this moment from almost a century ago. This episode explores the lynching of Raymond Byrd in the context of a long history of using racialized violence to maintain structures of white supremacy in law, politics, and society.

The episode is connected to the area where the route crosses Mill Creek, located nearly 430 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and just under 130 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia.

At Fort Chiswell, Virginia, the Transamerican Bicycle Route parallels a section where two interstate highways run together. Interstate 77 connects North Carolina to West Virginia and Interstate 81 connects Tennessee to the Canadian border in New York state. For a cyclist, the highways are not accessible. Interstate highways are closed to two wheel vehicles, which are relegated to lower traffic routes to reach the same destinations. Yet these highways, which seem so inaccessible and even dangerous to cyclists now, have a history which is inseparable from the development of cycling in late nineteenth century America. This podcast explores the ways that the development of cycling in late nineteenth century America contributed to the establishment of a national system of roads. While this aspect of cycling history is relatively well documented, one dimension of this change, the connections between cycling and racial politics in the United States, are the focus of this podcast, which situates this intersection in the broader history of Virginia specifically and the US south more generally. This episode also explores ways that traffic patterns in the 1970s compare to traffic patterns today, thus illustrating how America has changed in the half-century since the Transamerican Route was established in 1976.

The episode is connected to the historic site of Fort Chiswell, located just over 400 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about 150 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound rides enter Virginia.

In the summer of 1976, as cyclists rode through the city of Radford, they passed within a few blocks of the community hospital, established in the second world war, and a pillar of the community’s downtown. At the present time, cyclists along this route will see a new facility, built in the late 1990s, from route 76 just southeast of Radford, where Mud Pike Road parallels Interstate 81. This hospital is an example of how Radford, like other cities in predominantly rural parts of Virginia, has become a hub for medical care. The shift from a downtown hospital serving the immediate community to a regional health center on a highway interchange is reflective of broader patterns in small town America as well as the reconfiguration of health services into managed networks. This structural shift also provides a unique perspective to explore the impact on rural and small town America of a major health crisis of the twenty-first century: the costs of opioid addiction. In this case, underlying social, economic, and regional dynamics created vulnerabilities among marginal populations that brought long-term losses to individuals, families, and communities. Understanding southwest Virginia in the present is impossible without an appreciation for the causes and consequences of this devastating health crisis, in Appalachia specifically and more broadly in rural America. This episode is connected to the city of Radford, located just under 400 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about 150 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia.