Off the Interstate: “God’s Thumbprint”

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

I first encountered Burke’s Garden many years ago the first time I drove to Southwest Virginia.  I was enchanted with it and visit it every time I go to Southwest Virginia.  The latest visit was late last month when I was on the way back to Richmond from visiting my grandson in college in Kentucky.

I don’t remember how I found out about Burke’s Garden.  I certainly did not stumble upon it.  One does not stumble across Burke’s Garden.  One has to be looking for it.

To get there, you take a local road south from the town of Tazewell.  That road will lead up a mountain with the usual S-curves and hairpin turns.  Upon coming down the other side of the mountain, you will be in a large, fertile, green valley completely surrounded by mountains.  The road you came in on is the only paved way out.  (There is a forest service road at the other end of the valley but whether it is passable varies.  Some descriptions of it advise those attempting to travel it have a chain saw handy.)

Radford University geologists explain that the area was once a large dome comprised of shale and limestone capped by harder sandstone. As the forces of erosion cut through the sandstone, the softer rock beneath it eroded more quickly, forming the valley floor with hard sandstone forming the ridges around the edge of the valley.

That is Burke’s Garden.  It feels like another world.  About 300 people live in its nearly forty square miles.  Many are retired; others farm; and others commute to jobs outside the valley.  Cattle farming predominates the area with large pastures cut by little streams.  There is a road that winds around the valley, but in the two hours that I was there, the only motor vehicle I encountered was a school bus.

It is quiet, peaceful.  There are only two stores that carry some staples, deli meat, fresh baked bread, and lots of souvenirs.  At these stores, one can get freshly made sandwiches.

At some intersections, there are signposts indicating which families live down which road.

There is a legend that James Burke, a member of a surveying party that came into the valley in 1748, threw out some potato peels one night while preparing his meal over a campfire.  When the group returned a year later, they found a robust crop of potatoes.  His co-workers jokingly dubbed the area “Burke’s Garden”, and the name stuck.

In the late 19^th century, the area attracted the attention of agents for the Vanderbilt family who were looking for land upon which to build a large estate.  None of the folks living in Burke’s Garden wanted to sell.  So, the agents moved southward to North Carolina and eventually Biltmore was built near Asheville.

One development since my last visit has been the influx of Amish families.  There were some Amish families in the area in the 1990s, but there was not enough land for sale for their children to stay in the area.  As a result, the families eventually moved out.  Now about 100 of the residents are Amish.  They have their own school in the valley.

If you are in the area, it is worth the time to step into this other world.  You will leave feeling refreshed.