Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The southwest Virginia town of Tazewell, first settled in the early 1770s, lies near the headwaters of the Clinch River and is surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains. Tazewell's claim to fame in the early 1900s was being the smallest town in America with an electric street car. Today, the Tazewell County seat and several nearby communities are home to a number of attractions that pay homage to the region's scenic natural beauty and historical roots. If you're staying overnight, the county has a variety of accommodation options.
Learn more about Tazewell County's early days by touring the Historic Crab Orchard Museum and Pioneer Park in Tazewell, where the highlight is a pioneer village with 15 log and stone buildings representative of the early 1800s, including a barn, farmhouse, smokehouse, springhouse, craftsmen's shops and family cabins. The museum, open Tuesdays to Sundays at the time of publication, also includes Native American tools, Civil War artifacts and a gift shop. The Sanders House in Bluefield, about 18 miles northeast of Tazewell, is a circa-1896, three-story home with 19 rooms, nine fireplaces and many of the original furnishings and wood floors. The grounds also include a restored log cabin, granary, smokehouse, springhouse and a cottage that is home to the Tazewell County Visitors Center.
Tazewell County's mining heritage, which has its share of tragedy, is on display from April to August at the Pocahontas Exhibition Mine and Museum, about 23 miles northeast of Tazewell. View the opening to the original Pocahontas Mine and an original coal seam that is more than 10 feet tall. The adjacent museum has a gift shop and educational room with other exhibits about the mine, which opened in the 1880s. The nearby Pocahontas Cemetery includes 114 side-by-side graves that mark the final resting place of victims of an 1884 explosion. The Coal Miners' Memorial in Richlands, about 18 miles west of Tazewell, pays tribute to the county's mining heritage with a black granite wall, waterfall, statue of a miner and the names of nearly 1,100 miners who have died in mine-related accidents in the region.
Pack a picnic lunch and head to Lincolnshire Park in Tazewell, a haven for outdoor recreation. The park boasts a 21-acre lake for boating and fishing, a walking trail around the lake, a seasonal swimming pool, picnic shelters, and volleyball, tennis and basketball courts. Another highlight is Kidzown, a huge wooden playground with slides, swings, mazes and other interactive games. Or spend a day surrounded by nature at Cavitt's Creek Park and Lake Jack Whitten, about 6 miles north of Tazewell. The park has RV and tent campsites, hiking and biking trails, picnic areas and a playground. The adjacent 54-acre lake offers boat rentals and fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass, catfish, sunfish, trout and walleye. The park is also a good spot to glimpse wildlife such as deer, wild turkey and a variety of birds.
Six of the eight stops on the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail's Mountain Heritage Loop are in Tazewell County. In addition to the Crab Orchard Museum, Lincolnshire Park and Cavitt's Creek Park, other stops on the loop include a pair of working farms -- Sandy Head Ostrich Farm and Thistle Cove Farm -- and Burke's Garden. The latter, about 14 miles west of Tazewell, is a bowl-shaped valley carved out of the top of a mountain. In this scenic spot, you can browse the old-fashioned Burke's Garden General Store, visit the historic Central Lutheran Church and its cemetery with gravestones dating to the 1700s, or hike a portion of the nearby Appalachian Trail. Numerous overlooks provide vistas of the valley below.