Volume 35, Number 2

On the cover: Dancer at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Fayette County. Photograph 1998 by Michael Keller. Our story begins on page 16.

Published by the
STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Joe Manchin III, Governor

Kay Goodwin, Secretary
Department of Arts, Culture and History

Randall Reid-Smith, Commissioner
Department of Arts, Culture and History

John Lilly, Editor

Kim Johnson,
Editorial Assistant

Cornelia Crews Alexander
Circulation Manager

A.C. Designs
Publication Design

Summer 2009

2 Letters from Readers

4 Current Programs * Events * Publications

7 GOLDENSEAL Good-Bye

8 Back to the Land in Pocahontas County

By David Holtzman

16 Open Arms at Clifftop
20th Appalachian String Band Music Festival

By John Lilly

26 “Keep a-Goin’”
Musician Everett Lilly of Clear Fork

By John Lilly

34 Sharp’s Camp
Mercer County Poor Farm

By Bill Archer

38 “It Was a Hard Life”
Growing Up at the Pendleton County Poor Farm

By William D. Rexroad

44 Mission Hollow Memories

By Karl Priest

52 “They Were So Good to Me”
Recalling Life at Brookside

By Karl Priest

54 My Mom, the Snake Slayer

By Beverly Cookro

55 Sundays on Miracle Run

By Bob Masters

60 The Curio House at Harpers Ferry

By Christopher Craig

66 West Virginia Back Roads
PIGS Haven in Shepherdstown

By Carl E. Feather

68 New Books Available

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