Backcountry Notes

"Mountain Ride in a Stage Coach," Wells & Champney, The Great South (1875) Travelers in the early Backcountry often had to make do with campsites and lodgings in private homes, but the volume of traffic soon resulted in the construction of inns and taverns. On occasion, a community grew up around the establishment, resulting in place names like Steele's Tavern. With the development of better roads, there came stagecoaches and inns to accomodate coach travelers who needed a respite from the challenges of Backcountry transportation.

NOTE: Click on any image for a larger view.

Traveler's Rest -- Mineral County, West Virginia.

Also known as the "Old Stone Tavern" and the "Old Stone House," the Traveler's Rest was built in the early 19th century on the Northwestern Turnpike, later designated as U.S. Route 50. When these pictures were taken in 1937 it was being used as a private residence.

Traveler's Rest originally served as a stagecoach stop. The building is now owned and being restored by the Mineral County Historical Foundation.

Cross Keys Tavern -- Shelbyville, Kentucky

This complex of buildings began about 1800 on the road through Shelby County, Kentucky, to a ferry on the Ohio River. The photographs were taken in 1931. Tragically, the main house and wooden outbuildings were destroyed by a fire in the mid-30s; only the stone kitchen remains.

Main Inn building

Old Stone Kitchen -- only surviving structure.Dining room

Alter's Halfway House -- New Alexandria, Pennsylvania

This log structure was built in stages beginning about 1830 and served as a "Halfway House" -- a traveler's inn -- from 1834 until 1860. By the time it was photographed, the structure was severly deteriorated.

Corner detail showing Pike-joint construction. Ill-advised concrete mortar may have contributed to the building's demise.Rear view of buildings

Old Stone Tavern -- Atkins, Virginia

This limestone-block structure was built sometime between 1808 and 1815 by Frederick Cullop on the Great Road through Southwest Virginia. Smyth County records indicate that the tavern prospered for many years. However, it was later the scene of two tragic ends and. according to local legend, the tavern is haunted by the spirits of Cullop and a later owner, Thomas Jefferson Snavely.

Tankersley Tavern -- Rockbridge County, Virginia

Tankersley Tavern perches on a hillside by the Maury River next to Lexington.  Originally built by Col. John Jordan as a toll house in about 1835, the building was located on the Valley Pike near the point where a covered bridge crossed the river to Lexington. The property later was operated as a tavern and in 1886 was bought by two brothers and a sister named Tankersley, giving the place a name that stuck. The Tankersley siblings appear to have been colorful and popular folks; according to local legend, one brother professed to be a Democrat while the other was a Republican so that one or the other of them would hold the position of East Lexington postmaster regardless of which party was in power. 

The tavern hosted travelers who came both by road and by boat.  A description of the means of land and water travel in this time and place is provided by A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, by Oren Frederic Morton (1920):

It was a long while before the fords and ferries in the larger streams were superseded by bridges. In 1834 Colonel John Jordan contracted to bridge [Maury] River near his mill at a cost not to exceed $1,500. The bridge was to have two passage-ways. . . .

A century ago the stage was what the rail-car and the motor-car are now. The early carriages had an attachment underneath that was in the form of a hayfork. It could be let down to serve as a brake. Stages of an improvised type appeared about 1825. By 1820 [1830] a stage came to Lexington three times a week. In 1836 there were stages twice a week on the Lexington and Covington pike. The tollgates east of the Alleghany line were at Armentrout's, at the foot of North Mountain, and at Hugh Mackey's, midway between Lexington and Armentrout's. The species of gentleman known in the Old West as the "road agent" sometimes paid his respects to a stage, and the merchant who went to the city to buy goods carried a pistol.

The waterway has always been a cheap means of transportation. Attention was early directed to the outlet afforded by the James and [Maury] rivers. . . . Sluice navigation from Richmond to Balcony Falls was open in 1816, and to Buchanan in 1827, but the James River and Kanawha Canal, incorporated in 1831, did not reach Balcony Falls until about 1850, nor Buchanan until 1851. During the intervening third of a century the [“James River”] batteau was used in moving produce from Rockbridge to Tidewater. . . . The nightmare of the voyage was Balcony Falls. In this four-mile pass the James falls some 200 feet, and the channel is beset with rocks. The few steersmen who could put a craft through "Bal-co-ny" were in much demand at high wages, yet in time of high water not a few of the batteaux were broken on the rocks. . . .

From Glasgow to Lexington the canal was built in sections, arriving at East Lexington in 1852. As each section was opened to travel, a warehouse was built. The first one above Balcony Falls was at Miller's, half way to Buena Vista. Another was at Thompson's, several miles farther on, and a third was at the mouth of South River. Until a warehouse ceased to be a terminal it was a very important place. Goods were wagoned on to Lexington and more remote points in the county. The canal boat would stop anywhere to take on or put off freight. The crew would even help a farmer to thresh, so as to secure the moving of his wheat. . . .

In all, there were six canal dams on the two rivers. There were five locks on the James, within the limits of this county, and fifteen on [the Maury] River. The first packet boat to reach Lexington arrived November 15, 1860. These passenger conveyances made three trips a week. The packet was drawn by three horses, a shift being made every twelve miles. The speed of four miles an hour was much more rapid than that of the freight boat.

The canal continued in use until put out of business by the railroads soon after 1880. As late as May, 1878, it was repaired by convict labor. In 1876 iron and whiskey were still the chief items of export. Ruined dams, grass-grown locks, and empty sections of canal bed remain as landmarks of a vanished era.

Ingles Tavern, Pulaski County, Virginia

The earliest structure in this complex was built in about 1772 on the Great Wagon Road at Ingles Ferry, which crossed the New River at Radford, Virginia. The Ingles family owned the land on both sides of the river. The tavern was a popular stop for resting and socializing and is said to have hosted Andrew Jackson and George Rogers Clark. The Ingles built several structures over the years but the two pictured are all that remain.

For additional information on preservation of Ingles Tavern, see Officials Protect Ingles Ferry Site and Historic Farm in Pulaski County Now Protected.