Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508300097
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MERRIMAC LENGTH: Medium
Once the industrial heart of Montgomery County, the shallow, overgrown Lick Run valley gives little visual clue today of the bustling mines and company town that began to disappear 60 years ago.
However, for those who grew up in coal-mining families, the olden days left memories and an enduring culture, despite the modern-day changes.
Soon the Merrimac story - about deep shafts, trains, union strikes, deadly explosions and hearty folk - may be more widely known, as community and academic projects designed to revive the past move ahead.
Huckleberry Trail users will learn about the Merrimac mines from historical markers as they pass through the old mining district.
And soon, anyone curious about what the mine and the company town looked like may examine a community scale model under construction.
"It will take a lot of cardboard and glue. It's a big site, and there's a lot to do," said Virginia Tech graduate student Scott Kennedy, the builder.
In pursuit of a doctoral degree in architecture, Kennedy's relying on Fred "Cody" Lawson to guide him through the years.
Lawson, 75, grew up in Merrimac. He drew a map of the mine buildings and houses that Kennedy will use as the model's basis.
"Mr. Lawson's memory is most remarkable," said Tech architecture professor Bert Rodriguez, Kennedy's research adviser.
Vice president of the Coal Miners Heritage Association of Montgomery County, Lawson is supporting Kennedy and serving on the committee recently formed to plan the Huckleberry Trail displays.
"I want the younger generation to know how we lived. Mainly how we survived. People would never believe what we went through, back during the Depression," he said.
Sometime this fall, Kennedy plans to display a preliminary table-size model at a public meeting in Merrimac. He wants people who grew up there to come, look it over and suggest changes.
The final product will be displayed around the county. Tech professor Anita Puckett hopes the model will spark memories and spread awareness of the county's mining history.
"We want it to get people talking. Everybody's got a story," she said.
Puckett, a humanities professor and a member of Tech's Appalachian Studies program, is part of an inter-departmental team overseeing Kennedy's project.
She hopes this is but the first glimpse of a grant-funded, comprehensive Merrimac study - combining architecture, anthropology, archeology, sociology and history - that re-creates life in the community's heyday.
"That's a mammoth amount of material," she said. Already there's talk of a cooperative effort with Radford University. And there's general agreement that Merrimac - and other former coal communities around the county - are a rich and virtually untapped resource that can sustain years of research.
For Kennedy's model, Lawson's memory has been augmented and corroborated by maps, aerial photos, site photos and recollections such as the 1994 book, "Merrimac Memories: A Personal History" by Garland Proco, also a native.
Proco's book also will be a primary guide to sources and photographs used for the Huckleberry Trail displays on local coal mining when the pathway is completed in about two years. The trail generally follows an abandoned rail line that was build in the early 1900s to haul Merrimac coal.
Eventually, the planners hope all the Merrimac projects will serve as an outdoor classroom for teachers, students and the public. "As a learning aid, this is a natural. It would lend itself so well, because it has everything," Rodriguez said.
"I'd like to see this used year after year, to give pride to our young people about their past," Puckett said.
by CNB