Mount Airy, NC is best known as the boyhood home of Andy Griffith, and the small town that fictional Mayberry, in the television series “The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968),” is based on.
Wally’s Service Station brings back memories of a simpler time. (Click on image for larger photo).
Wally’s Service. Goober says “Hey!.” (Click on image for larger photo).
Any time is a good time to vist Mount Airy, but thousands of fans of the classic TV series make the trip during the last weekend of September, for the Mayberry Days celebration. There are television stars, good food and music and all the makings of good time, reflecting a day when the world was simpler, and Mayberry was Small Town, America.
Recreation of Wally’s Service Station. (Click on image for larger photo).
I haven’t been to Mayberry Days. That’s a future trip. But, I did stop while driving through Mount Airy with my wife and three dogs, on a cold December day. Time was limited, and we didn’t get to see everything. We stopped at a recreation of Wally’s Service Station, with a copy of the Mayberry jail, next door. I pulled a camera out of my bag and snapped a few pictures. The Darlin truck, and a another, with a sign on the door for Wally’s Service Station, with the slogan “Goober Says ‘Hey!,'” are among the attractions, next to a sign on a building noting H. Sprague, Clerk, and Mayberry Hotel.
The Andy Griffith Show fans will remember The Darlins and their music! (Click on image for larger photo).
The Darlin Truck. (Click on image for larger photo).
Next time, I’ll drop by the Andy Griffith boyhood home, the Andy Griffith Museum, and maybe even have a pork chop sandwich at Snappy Lunch, which was a favorite of Andy Griffith. He even mentioned the diner in a first season episode, “Andy the Matchmaker (1960).”
Next visit will be longer, and there will be more pictures of the attractions we missed.
The site of Cook’s Old Mill. (Click on image for larger photo).
The light was right and I was close, so I made the trip and walked around for a few minutes taking photos. (Click on image for larger photo).
Puffy white clouds filled the sky showing patches of blue. I was close to Cook’s Old Mill in Greenville, WV. I had been there plenty of times before, but since the light was right, I decided go spend a few minutes walking around with a couple of Nikons thrown over my neck and shoulder. First, I took a few shots from the parking area side, and then walked over the Indian Creek Bridge to the mill itself.
The current mill on site dates to 1857. (Click on image for larger photo).
Laurel Creek Forge is a blacksmith shop constructed on the site in the 1980s. (Click on image for larger photo).
A couple of mill wheels sit in front of the blacksmith shop at the site of Cook’s Mill. (Click on image for larger photo).
Cook’s Old Mill was constructed here in 1796. The original mill building is gone and another having replaced it in 1857 on the same foundation. It is a 2 1/2 story, plus basement, hand-hewn post-and-beam building, with massive timbers pegged at their mortise and tenon joints. The site also includes the dam, mill pond, tail race and stream, as well as a log house which dates to 1843. The log house was moved to the property in the early 1990s from nearby War Ridge, and reconstructed.
Cook’s Mill site includes the mill, a blacksmith shop, the dam, mill pond, tail race and stream. includes the dam, mill pond, tail race and stream
This log house dating to 1843 was moved onto the property in the 1990s and reconstructed. It was moved from neighboring War Ridge, and is typical of area log homes from the period. (Click on image for larger photo).
A blacksmith building was constructed on the site in the 1980s. It’s design compliments the old mill building and surroundings. Across the road is the Miller’s old house, which dates to the later part of the the 19th century.
This log house dating to 1843 was moved onto the property in the 1990s and reconstructed. It was moved from neighboring War Ridge, and is typical of area log homes from the period. (Click on image for larger photo).
This wasn’t my first visit to the mill, and I will always stop if I’m in the area and the light is right. There’s always something to new to shoot with changing light.
Soldier Creek Primitive Baptist Church was built in 1874 on the site of a log chuch which was destroyed by a fire. (Click on image for larger photo).
Interior of the church, as seen through a window, (Click on image for larger photo).
Soldier Creek Primitive Baptist Church, Harvey, Marshall County, KY, dates to 1820 and is the oldest church in the Jackson Purchase region of western Kentucky. Through the years the old church has seen a lot of history, good and bad, including the crash of a B-29 Superfortress on July 1, 1945.
A monument erected by the Marshall County Fiscal Court, in 2008, directly across from the church, honors the men of the ill-fated flight. It reads:
Monument erected by the Marshall County Fiscal Court, in 2008, directly across from the church, honors the men of the ill-fated flight. (Click on image for larger photo).
“On July 1, 1945, A B-29 Superfortress crashed near Soldier Creek Church. Nine men aboard the B-29 lost their lives and one* survived after being thrown from the aircraft and parachuting to safety. This monument shall remain in remembrance of their sacrifice and of those who have served and continue to serve on foreign and domestic soils as ambassadors for our freedom and democracy.
1st Lieutenant Joseph F Arone Corporal Roy G Berryhill 2nd Lietenant Ward W Copenhaurer 2nd Lietenant Richard o Snow Flight Officer Eugene M Graham Sergeant Romold A Kryzan Sergeant Delmar H Lumberg Sergeant Arnold A Rushton Flight Officer James R Schetzsle Corporal Irving A Elias*”
The B-29 had just refuled in Nashville, and was on a routine flight, when it disintegrated in a severe electrical storm, during the middle of the night, some 45 minutes after takeoff. The crew was based at Kirtland Air Field in Albuquerue, NM, and they were returning to Colorado, before heading back to their home base.
The one survivor, Cpl. Irving Elias, the plane’s left waist gunner, was in the rear of the plane when he heard an explosion that ripped the plane apart. He was thrown out and floated down to the ground on a parachute, through heavy rain and lightning. He took shelter, as best he could, under a bush, and at daybreak made his way to a nearby house, where he received help, and was taken to the hospital in nearby Benton. Other than a few lacerations on his face, hands and feet, he was unhurt.
An old outhouse stands behind the old church. (Click on image for larger photo).
An old outhouse stands behind the old church. (Click on image for larger photo).
The existing church was built in 1874, after a second log church on the site burned. The first was made of round logs and had a dirt floor. It’s was followed by a more refined hewn-log structure, with a wood floor, which served the community until it was destroyed by the fire. According to local tradition, Indians watched from the nearby woods as the first church was being built.
The old church is no longer a place of full-time worship. However, I think it still used on special occasions. An old outhouse still stands behind the church.
Posted inBackroads of Kentucky|Comments Off on B-29 Superfortress Crash at Soldier Creek Church
