Verna Rorrer Shepherd recently shared an article she found online about Lover’s Leap, and it got me to thinking about all the things, (good and bad) that have occurred at the popular wayside. The following is an excerpt from the Danville Register & Bee article from 1915 that Verna shared, “To the Editor of the Register: In my opinion, Danville, Pittsylvania, Henry County, Martinsville, Patrick County, and Stuart have an asset that is practically unknown. I recently made an automobile trip to Stuart, thence up the mountain by a beautiful winding road to a place called ‘Lover’s Leap.’ The scenery along the upward climb is truly wonderful, but the view from the top surpasses the imagination. I have seen the mountains of North Carolina, have crossed the Rockies, and have traveled to Switzerland, but ‘Lover’s Leap’ is unique. I believe that there is nothing like it to be found anywhere. If we could get together and build a good road from here to Stuart, the streams of tourists to this beautiful spot would be worth piles of gold to the places mentioned above. Very truly yours, Dr. E.P. Beadles.”
Dr. Beadles was fortunate to be traveling in a car (I guess) back then, because it took three hours by horse drawn wagon to negotiate the nine miles from Stuart to Lover’s Leap. People still made the trip, dressed in their Sunday’s finest to partake of a picnic basket full of goodies when they reached the summit. Lover’s Leap is framed on three sides by almost perpendicular walls a thousand feet high framing a valley of meadows, fields, and woodlands bisected by the Smith River.
Apparently, someone took notice of Dr. Beadles’ suggestion to build a good road from Lover’s Leap to Stuart because the following article appeared in the West Point News on 2nd October 1925, “Lover’s Leap in Patrick County, a giant boulder on the top of Patrick County Mountain from which a large area of Virginia may be seen, has been purchased by H. A. Ford, of Martinsville, and H. P. Shedd for the purposes of speculation. The boulder is on the edge of a precipice and there is a 2,000-foot sheer drop to Smith River valley below. The Peaks of Otter may be seen from it on a clear day and the lights of Roanoke. The road to Hillsville winds up the side of the mountain and the property just acquired is three acres lying between the road and the brink of the precipice. Since the state built a soil road up the side of the mountain, Lover’s Leap, with its magnificent view, has drawn thousands who could not enjoy it before because of road conditions.”
Only four years after this article was published, the state decided to improve the road from Stuart to Hillsville again. The following are some excerpts from a lengthy article in the Danville Bee, dated, September 7th, 1929, about the re-routing of Highway 12 from Stuart to Hillsville: “$180,000 has been spent by the state of Virginia on the road starting at 1,100 feet that rises to a height of 3,200 feet above sea level through mountainous terrain. For nearly a year now, approximately one hundred convicts, many of them killers and highwaymen, have been hewing a new road out of rock aided by dynamite and powerful steam shovels.”
The Danville article further explained the new route, “at the Leap itself, the road has been completely changed. For half a mile, the road is being blasted out of native rock and for weeks, the dull thud of the explosions tearing asunder the ferruginous rock has been heard for miles. The convicts shoot fifteen to twenty sticks of dynamite at one time and large segments of the mountain are sent toppling down the shrub and tree-clothed slopes. (Sound familiar?) When finished, the motorist, instead of traveling east of the mountain top, will find the road running along the west side hanging seemingly over the edge of eternity. It is safe to say that along a half mile overlook, there will be many a parked car, its’ occupants gripped by the expansive view, 3,000 feet below of the Smith River Valley with its’ fertile farms, orchard lands, grazing lands, and stupendous corn.”
The Appalachian Trail was also being developed in Patrick County in 1930, crossing Wood’s Gap; Rakes Knob; the Sugar Loaf; Rocky Knob; around the top of Rock Castle Gorge; along the rim of Lover’s Leap; to the Pinnacles of Dan and onto North Carolina by way of Fancy Gap. In a Roanoke Times article, dated October 10th, 1930, a meeting of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club held in Floyd was attended by over 300 interested parties. The next day, participants visited Lover’s Leap and the Pinnacles of Dan; these two locations became popular tourist attractions, particularly for young people who were more well-suited to handle the journey!
The newspapers are filled with local news articles about people taking a day trip to Lover’s Leap. From the Danville Bee, September 3rd, 1936, “On Sunday, July 7th, fifty of the young people’s class of Mt. Olivet Sunday School went up to Lover’s Leap on cars furnished by the Mt. Olivet people. Rufus Edgar Woolwine, superintendent of the Stuart Methodist Sunday School and Sunday School workers went up to Lover’s Leap to assist the young people.” The preacher spoke on ‘Unused Opportunities’ using the Dan River, which flows in its’ infancy near Lover’s Leap. He referred to the Pinnacles Project, and the new power plant that was currently under construction in Kibler Valley.
Lover’s Leap has had its share of tragedies over the years; the overlook becoming more accessible was not always a good thing. Ninety-five years ago this week, on the 19th of January 1930, Harvey Bryant Williams fell off the Lover’s Leap overlook and didn’t survive the fall. Harvey was a 29-year-old father of five. The story grows even sadder when Harvey’s son, Harvey Dickerson Williams’ body was found in March 1960 near the base of Lover’s Leap. News reports claimed that Williams’ body was found only feet from where his father’s body was found thirty years before. Emmette Green Conner’s body was also discovered near Williams; both men had frozen to death.
In December 1938, Virginia State Trooper Lloyd E. Thomas was working during a blinding snowstorm. He was in Patrick Springs when he recognized two suspects from a wanted poster. Three men were wanted for killing two law enforcement officers at a filling station robbery in North Carolina. Thomas began pursuing the men up the mountain and in a sharp curve at Lover’s Leap, the officer forced the wanted men’s Pontiac into a bank. As Trooper Thomas stepped out of his car, one of the men shot him in the chest. The trooper, lying wounded in the snow, could not act when the assailants took his service revolver and proceeded back down the mountain in their stolen car. Trooper Thomas managed to get himself into his car where he drove to Henry Cassell’s house and activated his siren, waking Cassell. Cassell drove the wounded officer to the hospital in Stuart. Thankfully, Trooper Thomas lived to retire and is buried at Critz Baptist Church Cemetery. The shooter was apprehended a few days later in South Hill, Virginia.
I had every intention of wrapping up the Lover’s Leap story in one column, but there are just too many stories to share. We have covered from 1915 through 1938. Henry from Henriedda’s Crafters shared the above photo with me years ago. This is the building where Henriedda’s Birdhouses was for many years; it used to be Lover’s Leap Tavern. Cousin Ivalien said that this was Edna Alderman, Ruby (not sure, maybe Alderman or West), and Loula Mae Cockram. Next week, we will revisit Lover’s Leap from 1940 to the present. Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or (276) 692-9626.
