Why does a Virginia town of 8,000 people pull in 140,000 visitors a year? Walk Main Street

Abingdon’s got history you can walk, ride and taste

Tucked into the Blue Ridge Highlands about 15 miles northeast of Bristol, Abingdon sits close enough to the Tennessee border that you can practically smell the smoky mountains from Main Street.

About 8,375 people live here, but the town pulls in more than 140,000 visitors a year, and once you see what’s packed into 20 walkable blocks, that number makes sense.

This place has been earning its keep since Daniel Boone passed through in the 1760s, and it hasn’t stopped since.

Daniel Boone named this town after wolves

Before it was Abingdon, this stretch of southwest Virginia had a different name: Wolf Hills.

Frontiersman Daniel Boone gave it that name when he came through in the 1760s and his dogs tangled with a pack of wolves.

Scots-Irish settlers arrived around the same time, put down Presbyterian roots by 1773, and built Black’s Fort a year later to hold off Cherokee raids during Lord Dunmore’s War.

By 1778, the Virginia General Assembly had incorporated the settlement as Abingdon, named after Martha Washington’s ancestral home, and planted it as the county seat of newly formed Washington County.

The road that carried a revolution through Abingdon

Abingdon grew up along the Great Road, the main route pioneers took through the Blue Ridge toward the western frontier. That geography put it at the center of one of the Revolution’s most decisive moments.

In September 1780, Colonel William Campbell gathered about 400 Virginia militiamen at what is now the Abingdon Muster Grounds, a 9-acre park certified by the National Park Service as the northern trailhead of the 330-mile Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.

Those men marched south to South Carolina, where their victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain turned the war. Thomas Jefferson later called it the turn of the tide of success.

A railroad that crept through mountains is now a trail icon

The Virginia Creeper Trail takes its name from the steam engines that once groaned up these mountain grades hauling lumber, iron ore, and passengers.

The railroad dates to the 1880s and ran its last train on March 31, 1977.

The converted trail opened to the public a decade later and now runs 34 miles from Abingdon through Damascus to Whitetop, near the North Carolina border.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy inducted it into its Hall of Fame in 2014.

It crosses farmland and forests, and passes over dozens of restored wooden trestles and bridges that the old freight trains once rolled across.

Ride 17 miles of trestle crossings and open farmland

Right now, the Abingdon-to-Damascus section, about 17 miles, is open for biking, hiking, and horseback riding. E-bikes are permitted.

The trail stays nearly flat from Alvarado to Damascus, less than a 1 percent grade, so most riders find it an easy half-day trip.

You’ll cross the headwaters of South Holston Lake on a curving trestle and roll through bucolic countryside the whole way.

The upper 17 miles from Damascus to Whitetop are closed after Hurricane Helene destroyed 18 trestles and washed away miles of trail in September 2024.

A $240.5 million restoration contract has been awarded, with reopening estimated for fall 2026.

Actors once took the stage in exchange for a side of ham

On June 10, 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression, actor Robert Porterfield returned to southwest Virginia with 22 unemployed fellow actors and opened a theater with a radical idea: pay what you can, and what you can doesn’t have to be cash.

Audiences could buy a 40-cent admission with produce, dairy, or livestock. The motto became “Trading Ham for Hamlet.”

At the end of that first season, the company had earned $4.35 in cash, two barrels of jelly, and a collective weight gain of over 300 pounds.

Virginia designated Barter Theatre the State Theatre of Virginia in 1946, the first state in the country to give that honor to any theater.

The longest-running pro theater in America is right on Main Street

The building Barter calls home dates to 1831, when it was built as a church. It later served as a town hall and opera house before Porterfield walked in.

Today, it runs two stages: the 505-seat Gilliam Stage and the smaller 167-seat Smith Theatre. The company mounts about 20 productions a year and draws more than 160,000 people through the doors.

Early in their careers, Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, and Patricia Neal all performed here. At least once a year, Barter still honors its roots by accepting food donations for Feeding America Southwest Virginia.

A Civil War hospital that became a hotel for first ladies

General Francis Preston built the mansion at 150 W. Main St. in 1832 for his family of nine children.

By 1858, it had become Martha Washington College, one of the earliest schools in the country to offer higher education to women.

When the Civil War came, the building turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers, with some students staying on as volunteer nurses. The college closed in 1932, and three years later the building reopened as a hotel.

Edith Wilson attended the college as a student at 15.

Later, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Jimmy Carter all stayed at what is now the Martha Washington Inn.

Free art, working studios and a freight depot turned gallery

The William King Museum of Art sits in a 1913 former school building and doesn’t charge admission.

It’s Virginia’s only nationally accredited museum west of Roanoke, and it mounts an average of nine exhibitions a year across five galleries, with an outdoor sculpture garden and resident artist studios on the grounds.

Down the street, the Arts Depot occupies a restored 1870s railroad freight station now filled with working artist studios and fine art galleries.

The Southwest Virginia Cultural Center and Marketplace, a 29,000-square-foot venue, pulls it all together as a visitor center, artisan marketplace, music hall, and the headquarters for The Crooked Road.

Old-time music echoes every first Thursday of the month

The Crooked Road is Virginia’s 330-mile Heritage Music Trail, winding through the mountains and connecting venues that keep old-time, bluegrass, and traditional Appalachian music alive. Abingdon anchors one end of that trail.

On the first Thursday of every month, the Cultural Center hosts a Crooked Road Jam where musicians show up and play acoustic sessions together.

The Virginia Highlands Festival, launched in 1948 by Barter’s Robert Porterfield, brings a multi-day celebration of Appalachian arts, crafts, and music every summer.

From Abingdon, you’re also a short drive from the Carter Family Fold and the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol.

A working 1790s grist mill that still sells stone-ground cornmeal

About four miles north of town, White’s Mill runs off a 20-foot metal Fitz waterwheel at a site that dates to the 1790s.

It’s one of the last water-powered grist mills still operating in southwest Virginia, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and open Friday through Sunday from May through October. You can buy stone-ground cornmeal and grits on site.

Back in town, The Tavern, believed to date to the late 1770s, is widely considered one of the oldest bars in Virginia.

Sinking Spring Cemetery, established alongside the Presbyterian church in the 1770s, holds graves from the town’s earliest days.

USA Today called it the best small-town food scene in America

That recognition didn’t come from chain restaurants. Abingdon’s brick-sidewalk downtown has none.

What it has is locally owned shops, galleries, cafes, and a farmers market running Tuesdays and Saturdays. USA Today made it official: best small-town food scene in the country.

The town sits right off Interstate 81, about four hours from both Raleigh and Richmond, which makes it a natural road trip stop.

Free museums, open trails, a working mill, a 200-year-old bar, and the longest-running professional theater in America. For a town of 8,375 people, it’s a lot to come back for.

Visit the Virginia Creeper Trail and Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va.

You can start with the trail. The Abingdon trailhead is at 631 Peery St., and the open 17-mile section to Damascus runs daily.

The William King Museum of Art at 415 Academy Drive is open daily with free admission. Barter Theatre at 127 W. Main St. runs performances Tuesday through Sunday, February through December.

White’s Mill at 340 Whites Mill Road is open Friday through Sunday, May through October. Check the official websites for current showtimes, ticket prices, and trail conditions before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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