Modest country churches mark the landscape in small rural communities. Cars in an informal yard create a pattern of human gathering.

The coal-fired Glen Lyn Power Plant ceased operation in 2015. Its hulking mass still sits along the New River in Giles County, very near the border with West Virginia. A deep pit adjacent to the power plant contains remnants of coal, which erode and shift with the rains.

Shelter roof structure

As documented in Visual Character of the Blue Ridge Parkway (U.S. Dept of the Interior/NPS), this shelter was the first building constructed on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is “constructed of exposed heavy, square chestnut timbers erected on a base of horizontally laid stone. The floor is flagstone. The roof is made of hand-split oak shakes on exposed wood purlins. The building is a good example of early rustic park architecture.”