Blue Ridge Country September/October 2022 - 22

COUNTRY ROADS
New Life at the Old Fries Depot
A
fter 12 years of planning, construction
and red tape, the town of Fries, Virginia,
has a new open-air market structure downtown.
The market operates
Saturdays through October,
with a chili cookoff
October 22.
Called Fries Common
Market @ The Depot, the
2,700-square-foot roofed
facility goes beyond farm
produce to offer handicrafts,
landscape plants and whatever else
local folks bring in. A small stage allows
old-time musicians to jam in comfort.
The new market sits where the defunct
Norfolk & Western Railway passenger
depot once stood, echoing the size and
style of the original. That line serviced the
Washington Mills textile plant, hauling raw
cotton in and finished products out. Passenger
service to Fries ended in 1951 and
freight haulage stopped in 1985.
Afterwards the rails were torn up to
create the New River Trail State Park. Look
for the stone marker carved with " P 45, "
meaning 45 miles to Pulaski.
-NAN K. CHASE
30 Years Ago
in Blue Ridge Country
" Winchester was also home to
country-music legend Patsy Cline.
But you don't see a statue of
her anywhere in town, no matter
how hard you look. As one
angry fan wrote to the editor of
the Winchester Star: 'I've visited
cities which pay greater tribute
to early-America gangsters and
outlaws than Winchester does to
Patsy Cline.' "
-Joan Vannorsdall, lamenting
in her piece, " Why Won't Winchester
Honor its
Heart-Song Star, "
in the Sept/Oct
1992 issue. (See
our reader-poll
festivals winners
elsewhere in this
issue for at least
some measure of progress for Patsy
Cline recognition in her hometown.)
Skywatch
September/October: An Immense Nebula Splits the Milky Way, Lengthwise
E
North
Deneb
Vega
CYGNUS
Northern
Coalsack
Summer
Triangle
Overhead
Altair
Milky Way
45º above
southern horizon
Facing South in September or October 90 minutes after sunset.
arly evening in late summer and early
fall is a great time to head outside and
admire what lies above. If you are fortunate
enough to be under dark, moonless
skies, you are in for a real treat.
Beginning in the northeast, running
overhead, then dropping to the southwest
horizon is the variedly glowing ribbon
of the Milky Way. Directly above appears
one of its brighter regions, marked
by the bright star Deneb, which twinkles
as the tail star of Cygnus, the swan. Along
its spine is an intriguing feature that at
first easily escapes notice, then becomes
much more obvious.
Known as the " Great Rift, " this dark
22 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
lane splitting the Milky Way lengthwise
is a complex of enormous clouds of
dust imbedded within the plane of our
galaxy. These vast, dark nebulae contain
the building blocks of future stars while
obstructing most of the light emanating
from stars far behind it.
The section immediately to Deneb's
south is a seemingly starless area called
the Northern Coalsack. The dust clouds
forming it and much of the rest of the
Great Rift lie 3,000 light-years from us on
Earth.
It is amazing what you can see on a
clear night. You just need to make the
time to gaze skyward. -JOHN GOSS
West
East
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Blue Ridge Country September/October 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country September/October 2022
