White Top

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Title:     White Top
Author: Etta Belle Walker [More Titles by Walker]

Iron Mountain has lost that name and today is known far and near as White Top. The visitor looks down five thousand feet below and can see into Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. The top is bald, rocky and about three hundred of its sloping acres are covered with a fine white grass. In summer one sees hundreds of wild flowers, sturdy evergreens, similar to Norway spruce, called Lashhorns, berries and many small animals.

Wilbur Waters, the hermit, is one of the most colorful characters in the great Southwest and many adventures he had with wild animals. Wilbur's mother was an Indian who died when he was very small. His father, who lived in North Carolina at the time, apprenticed the boy to a shoemaker to learn that trade. The little boy, no doubt homesick, could not stand his new home. He ran away and from that time on made his own living. When he heard how the wolves were making havoc for the settlers in and around Abingdon, he came to get the rewards offered for their heads. He built himself a rude shack on White Top, and if one would read real adventure tales, let him read Wilbur Waters which relates many stirring ones.

Every summer during August a festival is held at White Top where mountain music is played and folk dances are held. John Powell, the noted Virginia composer, is especially active in the preservation of folk music and he has been instrumental in attracting people of influence to the celebration.

The major highways lead to within a comparatively short distance of White Top and the State Highway Department assures the traveler of good secondary roads which are passable in any kind of weather.

Another feature of the festival usually is the presentation of at least one play by the group of Broadway players who summer at Abingdon and conduct the famous "Barter Theatre."

Visitors who include White Top and the Barter players in their itinerary will be delighted with the diversified entertainments found there.

[The end]
Etta Belle Walker's short story: White Top

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