
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 10, 1993                   TAG: 9309110284
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MUSEUM

EVERY LITTLE burg and hamlet has a history of which residents are proud. That doesn't mean, necessarily, that a museum showcasing a community's history is a sure-fire tourist draw. The "build it, and they'll come" maxim of tourism development does not always apply.

But residents of Saltville, a town that straddles Smyth and Washington counties in Southwest Virginia, are right to be proud of its rich history.

Archaeologically, it's a trove of Ice Age history, and has been the site of some important digs. (The finds include a tooth from the elephant-like mastodon that roamed the area some 13,000 years ago - the tooth was given to Thomas Jefferson - and a nearly complete skeleton of a symbos musk ox, dating back about 12,000 years.)

Saltville was also the center of Civil War battles - fought over the salt mine that gave the town its name.

In the early '70s, Saltville was involved in another war - a war against environmental pollution. Saltville became one of the war's first casualties when its major employer, the Olin Corp., closed its plant after the company said it could not afford to meet new environmental regulations.

In 1971, Life magazine featured Saltville in a feature-and-photo special entitled "The End of A Company Town."

It was not quite the end. Though the salt-of-the-earth town never really recovered from Olin's pullout, its residents hang in there and keep trying.

In 1991, the Saltville Foundation was established to try to bring new life to the town by cashing in on its colorful heritage. Recently, the nonprofit organization announced plans to make Saltville - current population about 2,300 - a natural, cultural and historical center for the middle Appalachians.

A primary goal will be to raise funds to build a museum to highlight Saltville's unusual history.

As noted above, the past is not always prologue. Saltville has tried before, unsuccessfully, to parlay its past into a future with tourism potential.

Not every such project is a sound investment. A museum may not transform a backwater town into a destination for charter buses.

Still, some things are worth trying, if not for tourism dollars, then simply for historical preservation.

by CNB