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This October, the Adaptive Climbers Festival will gather in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge for the fifth year. In 2023, Folkways Reporter Emily Chen-Newton covered the event for Inside Appalachia. Since then, the Adaptive Climbers Festival has grown. Organizers say they’re nearly at capacity, with 300 climbers, caregivers and volunteers. Ahead of the festival, the campground has made accessibility improvements. Volunteers with the ACF have also been sprucing up the trails.
Roadside Attractions, Pepperoni Rolls And A Bus On A Rock, Inside Appalachia
Dinosaur Kingdom in Natural Bridge, Virginia is a quirky roadside attraction.Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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This week, dinos fight Civil War soldiers at a theme park throwback — Dinosaur Kingdom II in Natural Bridge, Virginia.
Also, if you’re hungry for a pepperoni roll in West Virginia, you can find one at just about any gas station. So — how did they get so popular? We’ll hear one theory.
And we check out the backstory of a bus that sits at the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers — and the man who put it there.
Hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
A dinosaur-solider creation from Mark Cline’s roadside attraction Dino World in Natural Bridge, Virginia.
Photo Credit: Pat Jarrett/Virginia Folklife Program
Every summer, Americans hit the road for vacation. The tradition of summer road tripping dates back for as long as there have been automobiles.
On these long drives, people needed breaks. So they’d stop at fruit stands, or fireworks stores, or … bizarre roadside attractions. A lot of those weird old-style attractions have disappeared, but some have managed to hang on.
In 2020, Mason Adams visited artist Mark Cline’s Dinosaur Kingdom II, in Natural Bridge, Virginia.
The Riddle Of The Pepperoni Roll
The story of the West Virginia pepperoni roll is more than its creation, but also how it spread.
Photo Credit: Zack Harold/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Pepperoni rolls have been enshrined as part of West Virginia history through their connection to coal miners. They’re absolutely a favorite and available almost everywhere, but that wasn’t always true. How pepperoni rolls became a statewide convenience store staple might have less to do with coal mining and more to do with lunch ladies in Kanawha County.
Folkways Reporter Zack Harold took a bite out of pepperoni roll lore.
The Mystery Of The Bus On The Rock
Anna Sale in 2014.
Photo Credit: Amy Pearl
If you listen to the popular podcast Death, Sex and Money, you know Anna Sale. Back in 2005, Anna was a reporter for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. She got curious about an old bus that sits on a rock at the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers, just past the town of Gauley Bridge.
So Anna traveled by boat with producer Russ Barbour to meet the man behind the mystery.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Sierra Ferrell, Paul McCartney, Joe Dobbs and the 1937 Flood, Blue Dot Sessions, Yonder Mountain String Band and Hot Rize.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from folkways editor Chris Julin.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
Two federally important facilities located in West Virginia require a strict limit on radio frequency interference. But for decades – increasingly as communication systems have become more advanced – those limits have made it difficult for emergency crews and first responders in Pendleton and Pocahontas counties to do their jobs as safely and effectively as possible. Now the results of a lengthy federal study show exactly how precarious the situation is. We caught up with Pendleton County Emergency Management’s Rick Gillespie to find out what the study shows and what happens next.
This October, the Adaptive Climbers Festival will gather in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge for the fifth year. In 2023, Folkways Reporter Emily Chen-Newton covered the event for Inside Appalachia. Since then, the Adaptive Climbers Festival has grown. Organizers say they’re nearly at capacity, with 300 climbers, caregivers and volunteers. Ahead of the festival, the campground has made accessibility improvements. Volunteers with the ACF have also been sprucing up the trails.
