Cooperative Living February 2018 - 4

Viewpoint | by Richard G. Johnstone Jr., Executive Editor
ISSN 1529-4579
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Editor
BILL SHERROD
Editor
LAURA EMERY
Field Editor
JANET BAILEY
Production Manager
TOMMY CAMPBELL
Design & E-Media Coordinator
AMANDA S. CUNNINGHAM
Advertising Sales
MARY HOWELL
Communications & P.R. Coordinator
NINA JACOBS
Administrative Coordinator
To contact magazine:
9 a.m.-5 p.m. M-F
Phone: (804) 346-3344
Or at any time:
Fax: (804) 346-3448
Email: bsherrod@vmdaec.com
Web: www.co-opliving.com
Published by the VA, MD & DE Association
of Electric Cooperatives
JAMES E. HUFFMAN
Chairman
HERBERT R. PATRICK
Vice Chairman
FLETCHER B. JONES
Secretary/Treasurer
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
President & CEO
Board of Directors: R. Wayne Browning, Belvin Williamson, Jr.,
A&N; C. Michael Sandridge, Michael J. Keyser, BARC; George N.
Goin, Gary E. Wood, Central Virginia; Robert E. Arnold, Michael
I. Wheatley, Choptank; Jeannette S. Everett, Steven A. Harmon,
Community; James E. Huffman, Shawn C. Hildebrand, CraigBotetourt;
Patricia S. Dorey, J. William Andrew, Delaware;
Fletcher B. Jones, John C. Lee, Jr., Mecklenburg; Russell G.
Brown, Greg W. White, Northern Neck; Wade C. House, Stan C.
Feuerberg, Northern Virginia; Dale McNiel, Randell W. Meyers,
Powell Valley; Herbert R. Patrick, Micheal E. Malandro, Prince
George; Linda R. Gray, Kent D. Farmer, Rappahannock; Larry C.
Howdyshell, Michael W. Hastings, Shenandoah Valley; Frank W.
Bacon, Jeffrey S. Edwards, Southside.
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Fact is, the cattle and sheep who are central
characters in every landscape here greatly
outnumber the people who tend them.
Highland's 2010 census showed a mere
2,321 residents, the lowest population of any
of Virginia's 95 counties. Next smallest in
population, though still with about twice as
many residents, is Highland's next-door
neighbor to the southwest, Bath County.
While both are mountain paradises, Bath is
known for its namesake hot mineral springs ...
its ample national forest land ... and the
legendary Omni Homestead and its many
recreational offerings, including one played to
near-perfection by Bath's favorite son, the late
Sam Snead, one of the best professional
golfers in history.
Highland County, though, is steeped in
agriculture, and known for its jaw-dropping
landscapes. In springtime, Highland is a sea of
green, acre upon acre of lush pastureland
covering the floors of its five major valleys, the
undulating contours of the Alleghenies rising
around them.
Most of Highland County's land is privately
owned, often by families who've proudly held
for generations the soil first settled by their
ancestors, Scots-Irish and German immigrants
who came here beginning in the mid-1700s.
So recreation in Highland County often takes
the form of hunting and fishing.
And whereas Bath is best known for its hot
springs, Highland is best known for its cold
mountain streams; 10 of them flow out of the
county, forming the headwaters of the James
and Potomac rivers. Anglers here enjoy access
to public fishing opportunities on three
waterways: the Bullpasture and Potomac
rivers, and Laurel Fork.
And then there's the birding, available in
both counties but with some special
opportunities in Highland, one of the best
and most popular locations in Virginia to view
the Golden Eagle. This massive and magnificent
raptor is noted for its wide wingspan and the
tawny tones on its head and neck that glint like
2
A Place Apart
Nestled into a corner of west-central Virginia is our highest and leastpopulous
county, Highland. While its Maple Festival annually draws tens
of thousands of visitors over two weekends, a true appreciation of its
wonders is only possible through visits during the other seasons as well.
F
or anyone weary of crowds and traffic
and noise, Highland County is a
wonderful elixir.
gold in the sunlight. Highland's upland pastures,
forests and waterways serve as welcoming home
to many other raptors as well, plus a wide variety
of songbirds and woodpeckers.
At 2,800 feet above sea level, Highland's average
elevation marks it as one of the highest counties
in the East, which is what makes it one of the
coldest corners of the commonwealth in the
wintertime ... and one of the coolest in the
summer. It's this latter virtue that first drew my
wife and young daughter and son here during a
particularly sultry, sweaty stretch in August of
1995. During this day trip, even our 8-year-old
daughter and 5-year-old son noticed that in
Monterey, the county seat, the grass was actually
green, not the crunchy brown of our lawn
in Midlothian.
A return trip a couple of months later
introduced us to the fall foliage that illuminates
the mountainsides in pastel reds and oranges and
yellows. Then in early spring, we visited our first
sugar camp, tramping through crunchy snow to
marvel at the amazing tentacles of plastic tubing,
tapping a large grove of shaggy sugar maples,
sending the precious sugar water downhill to
copper kettles, where it was cooked down into
maple syrup, scooped into retail jugs, and
happily poured later over pancakes and
waffles back home.
Our cover story this month features this
beautiful, remote place, which welcomes tens of
thousands of visitors the second and third
weekends every March. If you've never been, please
make a point of going. If you've been before ...
well, you likely want to return.
Our family did. Many times over many years,
we've enjoyed its beautiful landscapes and the
beauty of its hospitable residents, some of whom
became our neighbors when we bought a cottage
just north of the little village of Blue Grass a few
years ago.
From our cottage, we view emerald islands
of fenced pastureland salted with grazing sheep,
nestled beneath the gentle, rippling folds of these
ancient mountains. Sometimes we feel like we're
viewing an oil painting of a Scottish landscape
from 1818, or just enjoying a dreamlike view
in 2018.
In Highland County, both seem true at once. 
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Cooperative Living February 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living February 2018
