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Picture of the day - July 24, 2006
Damascus, Virginia In The 1920s
Click photo to enlarge.
Damascus, Virginia's Laurel Avenue circa 1920.
These days the small town of
Damascus, Virginia
is a thriving tourist destination with thousands of visitors
enjoying the many outdoor activities the area has to offer each and
every year. Damascus' Laurel Avenue is lined with businesses that
are more than happy to serve the needs of the numerous hikers and
bikers that are always passing through this "Trail Town".
Other small towns now look at Damascus and try to think of ways to
duplicate its spectacular success, but they're finding its model a
hard one to copy. Damascus has the good fortune of being located
smack in the middle of some of the country's most beautiful scenery,
and the popular trails that pass through those scenic mountains and
valleys all lead straight into town - including the heavily-traveled
Appalachian Trail.
Yes, life is good in Damascus these days, but there was a time when
that wasn't the case. In fact, the town started out as basically one
big lumber yard. In the early part of the 20th century, countless
thousands of trees were harvested from Shady Valley, Tennessee and
many parts of southwestern Virginia. The logs were then hauled to
Damascus or nearby
Sutherland, TN where they were sawed into planks
before being sent by train to parts far and wide. The work was hard
but plentiful...until the region's supply of timber was depleted.
Several manufacturing plants opened and eventually closed in
Damascus, temporarily providing ways for the townspeople to earn a
basic living. But the town's standard of living remained relatively
low until the 1990s when the tourism boom began. And the rest, as
they say, is history.
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