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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 25, 1995                   TAG: 9505250048
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI AND GILES STUDENTS IN NATIONAL HISTORY COMPETITION

Jamie Smith and Josh Lookabill took first place in state competition earlier this month in Charlottesville for their media project, "The Conflict for the Virginia-Tennessee Railroad in Pulaski, Va."

Josh Stoker took a second place for his project, "War in the Mountains." The three are students of Bill Atwood.

Russ Johnston, a student at Macy McClaugherty School in Giles County, is also eligible to compete nationally.

Johnston, who won first place in the junior individual media competition, and the Pulaski students were the only state winners in the district, which also covers the counties of Carroll, Patrick, Henry, Pittsylvania, Franklin, Montgomery, Roanoke, Craig, Alleghany, Botetourt, Rockbridge and Floyd, and cities of Buena Vista, Covington, Galax, Danville, Lexington, Martinsville, Radford, Roanoke and Salem.

The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors voted Monday night to donate $600 toward the Pulaski students' trip to compete nationally.

"Needless to say, Pulaski Middle School is proud of these students and their significant accomplishments," Principal Roger Green said.

A fund has been established at Pulaski Middle School for donations to cover the trip's cost. Donations can be sent to History Day Fund 500 Pico Terrace, Pulaski, Va. 24301.

The joint project that won a first-place for Smith and Lookabill centered on the Battle of Cloyds Mountain during the Civil War. The students made trips as far away as Bluefield, W.Va., to interview scholars and view maps and other documents. They also interviewed local historian Lloyd Mathews.

The students learned that the battle, while won by the North, failed to accomplish its objective of destroying rail transportation in the New River Valley because the units did not bring explosives with them. A wipe-out of the railroad could have shortened the war considerably, but rail transportation was back in use in a few weeks.

Stoker's project covered the miners' revolt in West Virginia in which union organizer Mother Jones was prominent. The revolt resulted in fighting between miners trying to unionize and hired detective agency guards who shot up mining camps from an armored train called the Blue Moose Special.

Stoker interviewed a witness to the event.

Atwood encourages his students to study history starting with a local perspective and then expanding it.

"There's a lot of history that just lives with the people in an area," Atwood said.

Johnston's project was on the Cuban Missile Crisis. "The overall topic was 'Conflict and Compromise,'" he said Tuesday. "I based it on what happened during those 13 days."

Johnston, 13, said he learned a lot from his project. He says he's been interested in history "ever since I was old enough to understand anything."

His father, W.R. Johnston, is a history teacher at Giles High School who coached his son and five high school students for the competition. The students won a superior rating in Charlottesville for their presentation: "Apartheid and the UN: Forum for Freedom."

Johnston said his history club sold doughnuts all year to raise the money to send students to national competition.