Letter from our own correspondent - Spanishburg

When you enter Spanishburg, West Virginia, it informs you that it is an unincorporated community, and it is immediately evident why: it has a grand total of one building in it.

Well, that is unfair. The small road that winds lovingly among these mountains and slopes will eventually unfurl to you the entirety of Spanishburg, replete with homesteads named things like Peaceful Valley (though Peaceful Valley also considerately warned us to Beware of the Dog) and Shady Spot.

Intertwined with the road is the Bluestone River, which is very beautiful, not least due to the untouched sweeps of greenery around it. It flows slowly, and up above it towers flat mountain faces, places where the mountain has been cut sharply at a precipice. A geologist would probably look at the exposed rock and delight in telling you about how those were Ordivician formations caused by the Eocene rift led to by the constant fault propagation model which scientists are becoming more and more convinced of, or some other tale like that.

The prettiest spot, I thought, was the Bluestone River across from Spanishburg Elementary School:

This sounds like the most family-values spot ever to send your kid to school.

I took that picture of the elementary school from next to the Green Valley General Store. This store sells peanuts, chips and coke. The lady running the shop is very nice. She also makes wreaths. She has a big pile of ribbon behind her counter, and her completed wreaths were hanging on the wall. They were actually very beautiful, even though I am sure I will never want a West Virginia University themed wreath on my front door, or anywhere in my house. But she gets orders from everywhere.

Next to the General Store, you see the little bird house. That is a free exchange, on-your-honor sort of library!

So Spanishburg was very nice.