FOSTER FALLS IN WYTHE COUNTY VIRGINIA

Tucked in the backroads of southwest Virginia in the heart of Wythe County is the restored village of Foster Falls, a stop on the old New River Rail Line at a thriving mining community.

Foster Falls is now a part of Virginia's New River State Park which links a number of historic sites along a old Norfolk and Western railroad line now being part of a 57 mile linear park.  

Foster Falls is at milepost 24 of the 57 mile biking trail.  It is a restored mining village with many things to do.  There is a livery stable, watercraft, amphitheater, historic buildings and access to the New River.

The area became a mining community centered around a furnace that smelted ore into pig iron in the late 19th Century.  

At it's peak, the Foster Falls Mining Company produced 3,000 tons of iron for distribution across the country.  At the center of the facility was a large charcoal fired furnace.  All that remains is the remnants of the furnace chimney.

The Foster Falls Hotel, was more of a commissary, bunk house and general offices of the mining company than a tourist hotel.  After all, who wants to visit an iron smelting factory?!  After the mining operation closed down in 1914, it became for years the orphanage and training school for the Abingdon Presbyterian Church. It is slated to be restored as an operational hotel in 2020 by the Virginia Parks system.  For now, it is a photographic focus of any visit to Foster Falls.

The grand portico is the signature architectural feature of the Foster Falls Hotel. Playing with the late afternoon shadows I captured two different photographs, and really don't know which I like the best.

Windows and their reflections always catch my attention and it was no different at Foster Falls Hotel.  I captured a neat reflection in an upstairs window and another view inside by pressing my camera lens against the window pane...do you see any apparitions?

I can't wait to return one day real soon with my bicycle and ride north and back one day...and ride south and back the next day...then kayak upriver...what a great destination this will soon be!

As photographically alluring the buildings might be, they cannot compete with the glory and majesty of one earth's oldest rivers.  

At Foster Falls, the New River crosses a series of shoals that create several small rapids. The river calms right before the shoals and in the late afternoon many nice reflections are easily photographed.  


Below the shoals, looking upstream we tried to catch the sunset.  It was not as spectacular as we had hoped but nevertheless there were several great shots of nature's daily light show.

Trying a different filter, I was able to get some neat effects but still it pales in comparison to the real thing.

"But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you..."













"...or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you..."

"Which of these do not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?  In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind"   
                    Job 12:7-10