Qualla: Abingdon, Virginia

Abingdon, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven C. Price, CC BY-SA 3.0. Thomas Walker called the tract Wolf Hill in 1748 because the wolves around it had eaten so many of his hunting dogs. By 1774 a settler named Joseph Black had built a stockade on the same ground, and called it Black's Fort. In 1776 it became the seat of the brand-new Washington County - among the very first counties in America named for George Washington, who at that moment was still a general fighting a war he might lose. Two years later the Commonwealth of Virginia incorporated the place as Abingdon. The wolves are gone. The county seat has been the county seat for two hundred and fifty years.

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Image: Steven C. Price | CC BY-SA 3.0

Abingdon, Virginia: At the Intersection of Two Trails

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven C. Price, CC BY-SA 3.0. Abingdon sits at the crossing of two ancient paths the indigenous nations had followed for centuries through the Great Appalachian Valley - routes the buffalo had walked before them, between the Middle and North Forks of the Holston River. That intersection was the entire reason ...

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Image: Steven C. Price | CC BY-SA 3.0

Abingdon, Virginia: The Overmountain Muster

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warfieldian, CC BY-SA 4.0. On September 24, 1780, militia from the western settlements gathered at the Abingdon Muster Grounds before riding south through the gaps to confront Major Patrick Ferguson's loyalist forces. That march ended at Kings Mountain, South Carolina, on October 7, with one of the most lo...

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Image: Warfieldian | CC BY-SA 4.0

Abingdon, Virginia: Paying in Hams

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RebelAt at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Robert Porterfield came home to Abingdon in 1933 with a problem and a solution. The country was broke. Actors were unemployed. Farmers had food but no cash. He opened the Barter Theatre on June 10, 1933, with a simple admission policy: a ham, a chicken, a jar of preserves, or a p...

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Image: RebelAt at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Abingdon, Virginia: Trail's End

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waldo Jaquith, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Virginia Creeper Trail - a former railroad line converted into a 34.3-mile path for walkers, cyclists, and horses - terminates in downtown Abingdon. It climbs gently from the town through Damascus and up to Whitetop Mountain, near where it meets the Appalachian Trail. The tra...

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Image: Waldo Jaquith | CC BY-SA 2.0