Tazewell, Virginia: From Riverjack to Shake Rag and Everything in Between 

Mrs. Turner was always working hard to build and improve Riverside if memory serves correctly. It started life as Riverside Block and Supply - perhaps by members of her family, and then became Riverside Fashions and then just Riverside. My memory may be off but I think that’s correct.

That final shot of the cornfield in the foreground and the mountains in the back... wow! Way back in the olden days that would have appeared on the front page of the "bank calendar" as an image of the best of America. Loved the whole video. And I could feel the affection, the warmth and the memories as you traveled through familiar territory. Those independent businesses: shops, hotels, restaurants and all... I really hope that the exposure to publicity that they get here helps them to survive and thrive well into the future. If we lose those places, we lose a lot of the charm and character that makes this area so wonderful.

I've hiked the peak too.❤️

I fell in love with Tazewell as a child. Being from McDowell County my Dad was typical in that he worked in the mines. What was not too typical for McDowell was that we had cattle. In those days the Tazewell stock market and auctions and the flea market were all together on Mondays at the old drive in theater. Many of my fondest childhood memories are Monday holidays spent there while Dad bought and sold cattle at auction and my Mom enjoyed the flea market, which was big back then. The crowds were huge and diverse as the farming community came together with the mining community. Not much fast food in those days so on the way home we would stop in River Jack for fried chicken dinners. We would find a shady place once we got into the farm areas of Horsepen and enjoy family time and our dinners as the sun went down. Thanks for the memories y'all.

These videos are truly a pleasure. It’s important to know and learn about the different communities we have and to “visit” places we may never see in person. You guys are the best! 💝🇺🇸 🌟💝

Thanks for showing tazewell yous to know some one from tazewell thanks for history go bulldogs

Beautiful 😍 many thanks

Haven’t been to Tazewell since the 1960’s! Thank you, sweetie pies ❤️❤️

Love it, thanks for the share!

This brings back so many memories! My hometown!

Very interesting place, Thank you for sharing

I remember visiting Tazewell County many, many times when I lived in Virginia. It is such a beautiful place in Virginia. Thank you Shane and Melody for always traveling to such great places. This video certainly brings back memories. Please take care and stay safe on the road.

Wonderful as always guys. I live in neighboring mercer county wv and have been to Tazewell many times. Love what you guys do

Really enjoyed this Video and the earlier one on Saltville. I am taking a solo 5 day motorcycle tour through the western part of Virginia in a couple of weeks and these are towns I am going to visit. Also visiting Haysi,Elk Horn City, Damascus and a bunch others. Thanks for the content!

Driving along with you guys makes me homesick for places I've never even been. I love a small town.

Wonderful video! You all do such a wonderful job! Thank you!

Fantastic video! I have ancestral roots in Tazewell, and it is interesting to be able to "explore" in this way. Hopefully, someday, I will be able to get there and take in its history.

Don't forget my home home Speedwell Tennessee. Love this

Thanks you guys beautiful place see you soon

Memories, sweetened through the ages just like wine! You two are awesome!

Another wonderful history lesson from you two about these Appalachian towns. The history is just as signifiying as the the beauty here in this part of Virginia. Thanks so much for your time and effort to do your videos.

My wife and I were in Tazewell last weekend. It seemed nice enough. However, I got the cold shoulder from the church I visited on Sunday before we left. We were talking about moving there, but now I'm not so certain. I did apply for a warehouse job, so we move out there if I am hired for that position, otherwise, not so certain. Still it is a really pretty area.

Thanks Captain Riverjack and 1st mate, well done and fun video as always.

Enjoyed this! Tazewell county is very beautiful! The view from the baseball fields was awesome! Thanks guys! Stay safe and God bless...🙏❤

I remember as a kid living in Big Rock over in Buchanan county, we would visit my grandparents who lived in Doran in Tazewell county. I always thought Tazewell county was so beautiful. I loved going there. My grandparents (Ed and Ada Cordle), lived there in the fifties. This is a good video. Thanks! p.s. if you ask for lettuce, tomato and mayo for your Hardee's steak biscuit, they will give you that. I ate Hardee's steak biscuits every morning for decades and actually worked building houses for the man who once owned Hardee's. Man, you guys have me going down memory lane with this one.

My request is that if you have time, show us the Flea Markets! I loved the video of when you guys went in one of them!!!!

Your video about Matoaka caught my eye because my mom lived there until she was a teen and they moved to Spanishburg. Then I just watched a bunch of your others (I've lived in NC and TN so I know a lot of the places you've been to) until I saw this one. I live down Gratton and it was a bit surreal to see my town on video. Loved it!!!!

Joe's Drive Inn. TDI. John's Restaurant. Shamrock Grill. Jackson's Drug- Fountain and Grill.

We just arrived in Tazewell a few days ago. We now live in North Tazewell and it is just beautiful here.

Another good historical ride. Love the road trips you do!

The small "barber shop" was called "Speedy's" he had one style and that was short like a military cut.

Love your videos.. I use too work at that long johns silvers across from the Hardess.. 1979 etc.. Have a great day.. Take care. God bless you and family... stitch

I LOVED THE TAZEWELL VA VIDEO KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Loved this gorgeous town.we are looking to retire and i watch all your videos just to see what would be a nice peaceful place. Think i may have found it.You two are so great together and so informative.

l love all these videos!! l am from Richlands, Virginia and my best memories were made there. Thanks

Love this ride along! You guys are SOOOO much fun! Just like I’m sitting in the back seat! Your banter is excellent!!!! Thank you, Shane and Melody! Beautiful country! Did I see water standing in ditches when you first got to Tazewell? It’s dry as a desert in Oklahoma!!!! 🧡😊✌️

I really enjoyed this video in between smiles and tear’s, I could feel myself riding along and having so many memories my first date was at the movie theater also and dinner was at Long John Silver’s sadly gone now and my prom dress came from riverside drive. I could have kept on watching this video since it has been 10 years since I’ve been home. So many memories ❤️Miss the Snappys hotdog’s and Buds chicken ❤️thanks for this video ❤️

I really enjoyed your trip through Tazewell . Very interesting to see a small Appalachia town . Both of you make such a great team together and just like a great entertaining duo you bounce off each other which makes it so laid back and entertaining. Looking forward to your next trip . Greetings from Derbyshire , England .

Nice looking and interesting town.

Thank you just found your channel. Tazewell is home always even though I’ve not been there in a few years. Thanks again much love from the Philippines 🇵🇭

Great job guys!

Many fun times in Tazewell

Neat community.enjoyed.👍✅💗❤️

You're an awesome guy Shane! My dad thought the world of you as well as your dad. You are a good friend! Thanks

The sherriffs dept was the high school until 1955, jr high school until maybe 1981 or so. I went to jr high there, Pappy Yates was principal.

Thanks!

Love and miss Ole T- town. Best people ever !

Love that small town and going to see family by Tazewell high

One of my favorite places on the planet ☮️

The Sheriff's Department headquarters was indeed the former Tazewell High until the current building on Cosby Drive was built in 1953. It became the Junior High building until the current Middle school was built in the late 1970s. My sister's senior class was the inaugural 6th grade class. Mr. Jim Higginbotham was the town's first Black chief of police. His wife Mallie was the only Black cafeteria worker in Tazewell County Public Schools. Billy Wagner was a classmate of mine before he made it big in baseball. Lucian Peery was my in car Driver's Education teacher. He was one of the first Blacks to integrate Tazewell High School, where I now work as a custodian. I've known his daughters all my life. Ellen Elmes was an art teacher of mine at Southwest VA Community College. I remember when Grants supermarket was ACME and, the current Dollar General was A-Mart. The part of the former Tazewell Mall you pulled up to was where Deskins supermarket was and later Save a Lot. I remember when Magic Mart was Heck's. The former Coal Bucket Deli is now Fiesta Jalisco. ACME and A-Mart were stores from my early childhood and they were in business many many years. The former Tazewell Cinema 3, later called Climbing Tree House theater, was opened in the late 1970s, replacing the old Clinch theater on Main Street. The first film I saw there was the Muppet Movie. The Clinch today is the fellowship hall of Main Street UMC, which y'all drove past turning on Main Street. The court house is the same as it was when I was a child (I'm 51 years old) but that massive regional jail expansion is fairly new construction. It wasnt that big when I was growing up. That KFC/Pizza Hut is commonly called the CluckNHut. Blacksburg (not to be confused with Blacksburg VA) is the name of the historically Black North Tazewell community across the tracks down the hill below Farm Bureau. The old Deskins grocery warehouse back in the 60s was Cardinal Lanes, a bowling alley. Lots of history in my hometown and Shake Rag community. Especially with the presence of two of the oldest churches in town, the Midway Church of Christ and First Baptist Church Carline. My friend Cicero and his brother Calvin pastor at a fairly new ministry they planted called the Shake Rag Church of Jesus Christ. Tazewell is a big town??😂😂😂 You should get out more. Go to the Tri-Cities or Roanoke. Those are big towns.

I grew up in Adria but my grandparents lived on the street by the depot. I have a lot of good memories of running around that area. My family owned the Snappy’s store and B&W Auto as well.

That’s my hometown! 💕

My 6th generation ggrandfather received 400 acres from Lord Fairfax on the Clinch River Michael Stump with a young 16 yr old surveyor named George Washington stopping over to survey the property and hunt with my ancestor. Had two great uncles from Tazewell who served in the Civil war.

new zealand fan here.great stuff.

Another cool video... we got family over tbere on my dads side and they are Brewster i wounder if im kin to them id love to knkw more about that side of the family.

As always I'm behind so I just watched this video. Melody I wanted to tell you the sheriff's department building.... I went to Tazewell Jr high there in 1978. And the building you talked about the haunted house used to be the Peery funeral home. Just a couple things I remembered!

Amazing that's my cousin supa chicken...#7.. I lived in tazewell but we moved 30 plus years ago but planning on coming back to visit my family

Frog Level Service Station was owned and ran by my grandfather T.E. Bowling Jr. and his father before him. Thanks for showing that, I miss sitting on those bar stools and listening to all the old men talk, especially my grandfather.

Thanks again for the video, I was born in Richland's VA "Tazewell Co "VA. Stay safe happy and healthy! ✌🏼

Just bought a home in North Tazewell Dry fork hollow. Fixin up an old house. I'm a Tsalagi Cherokee person and we call it the forced removal instead of settlement. Thanks for the video. I'm glad to be home where my ancestors roamed for thousands of years!

I just watched this, we took the long way to get to tazwell. We wanted to go on the back of the dragon, started at the end, yep we did it backwards which was ok cause we saw a beautiful town. We live in Penhook VA. The back of the dragon was on our bucket list of things to do while we still can. I have always wanted to live up here, my great grandparents lived in Waynesboro. Every summer we would come up from Hampton VA to visit for a week. I always said I wanted to live up here and here we are. Our son's moved us up here may of last year, so we have been up here for a year already, feels like longer cause I guess I never left from when I was younger, it just stays with you.

I truly need my traveling history teachers, Miss Melody made me laugh out loud when she said she rather a toddler paint a room , than Shane. thank ya'll for taking me were I have never been. love ya'll

Me and my wife like to get out and go places like that to see all the different places thanks for sharing your adventures. I lol we yall was talking about Mc Donald's ice cream maker not working I live in stokes County nc went to Mr Donald's a few weeks ago to get ice cream there's was broke pulled over to burger King they had ice cream no cones lol I told my wive we could get a cone from Mc Donald's and take it back to buger King. Happy trails

My in-laws were from Tazewell. Chaffin, Runyon and White were the family sir names. I took my father-in-law back for a visit in the late 1990s shortly before he unexpectedly died. He joined the Army at the beginning of WWII. He said war was hell but it gave him a way out of the coal mines. He made the Army his career and lived all over the world, but he always missed his home.

Ms. Taylor was the owner of Riverside Fashion. Melody you are correct, that was the Tazewell Middle School off of MaIn Street. This was a nice tour you took me on. By the way, Betony Vernon is one of my 3 sisters ~ all 4 of us grew up in Tazewell before moving on~

The building on the hill going into Main Street was indeed a school at one time. I went to Jr high there.

My grandparents lived at the end of Elm Street on top of the hill. Elm is directly across from the cemetery that still has the wrought iron sign that calls it Jeffersonville. My great aunt lived on the farm at The Cove where a Lassie movie was filmed in 1994. I spent many summers at my grandparents (in the 70's and 80's) and would love to live there, now. The city life of DC is not for me. I would live to get in touch with Sandra Cromwell, my cousin, if anyone knows her. Her maiden name is Phillip's and she lived near Thompson Valley. My grandfather had a lot of Cherokee in him. He was a coalminer in Gary, WV and retired back to Tazewell after a mine collapsed on he and a few others. He was the only one to survive. Edd Lambert and Helen Lambert were their names.

I really enjoy watching your videos best thing you could have done was include melody in them with you you guys make a great couple love rural places and learning the history behind them.. Kathryn Harold is a exceptional looking lady and was a great actress!

As a adult I delivered Coca Cola in Tazewell in the early 80s and linen for National Linen and Alsco in Tazewell, which was part of my route from 1992 to 2020. I had many wonderful customers there who became friends as well!

That was a school just before Main St. I went to JR High there, my mother went to elementary there and her mother went there when it was a high school in the forties.

Pretty clouds

We need more life down here. It's so gorgeous.

The Ideal barber shop aka Speedy's, was open in the 90s. Always got m hair cut there as a kid.

We have a Shake Rag in the flatwoods of Tennessee known for bluegrass jams.

Hi guys I really like your your show I watch you all the time I was just wondering if you guys ever do anything around duffield we got a lot of stuff here I think it maybe you could do a thing the right cove tornadoes if you can that would be great thanks love you guys

My Dad grew up in Tazewell. Family names are Kirby, Repass and Bowling. He had said that he had known Jimmy Dudley.

Lou Perry was in first integrated class at THS. First black football player on the team c. 1963-64.

I think you said the population of Tazewell is 4486. That's about the same is this township I live in, here in NJ. Hey, Fincastle! I was there on our big trip in 2012. We stopped at a cemetery to look at a big tree, and I got pictures of other stuff while we were there. Hey, you talked about gardening. That's what I do for a living, or I did, till my position was eliminated. 😡I was in charge of the grounds of a resort hotel. I had a crew of 3 to 4 that did the work. I always love the murals. Every time I see one I get pictures of it. I loved that Pisgah church. I think Pisgah was a mountain mentioned in the Bible, but I don't remember the story now.

I went to school with Jim Brewster. He attendef a Bbq at my house one summer.

I was born and raised in Tazewell. This is my home. My grandfather, Beverly Smith worked as a Supervisor at the old Acme warehouse in North Tazewell. I remember the Cardinal Bowling alley in North Tazewell as well. The theater up town and Jeff Ward's Clothing store, Ben Franklin, Western Auto. Tazewell was so beautiful and peaceful then. Friday Night Lights, when them Bulldogs was the real deal. Tazewell is my home. My parents are still living and I make it home at least once a month. I love Tazewell and my Shakerag heritage....

24:38, the Sheriffs Office, I went to High School there in 1954.

Saw Rambo II First Blood at that theater Lincolnshire lake?…pond 🤔Used to have the highest density of bluegill in Virginia 😝

It would be neat if you would check out West Jefferson in Ashe County in NC.

You stopped by the theater, and discussed it briefly. I also remember seeing movies there, and it's a shame that it is no longer in operation. There was a drive-in theater in Tazewell, on, or approximately on the site of the Food Lion grocery store you passed. I think its name was the Sunset Drive-in, but it was already closed when I remember seeing it. If you do go back to Tazewell, please stop at Beyond Video, which is between Pizza Hut and the Lincolnshire Park. It is a movie rental store that is still in operation as far as I am aware. So it has managed to survive longer than nearly every single video rental chain in the United States.

Hello!! The videos you make are very interesting. I'm from Brazil and I really like the videos produced from other countries, especially the places that are unfortunately abandoned and left to rot. It is very sad to see historic buildings being left behind. I would like you to make a video about the city of Jackson, in kentucky. Even though I've never been there, I like the city and admire it. A movie was made in this city in 1997 with Stevem Seagal ``Fire Down Below`` Some scenes were made in downtown Jackson, and you can see some buildings that no longer exist. Do you remember this movie? Hug from Renato, here in Brazil!

It isn’t much but you should do a video about Council ,VA we are proud about our park.

My 4th gr grandmother was from Tazewell. Her last name was Wadkins.

Shane, going down the Main Street in Tazewell, what is the name of the huge pyramid like mountain in the middle of the background? Love your videos!

My ancestors are from Tazewell Va. I will have to visit someday, any Turner/Sparks still around?

He didn’t mention that there was a general store on the left on the shake rag, my family from Tazewell. I know all about that place. It’s my second home. And the shake rag wasn’t that bad back in the 79s 80s. Working class black folks. And the shake rag was called the carline and the Branch

My dad’s hometown.

Yes, the Sheriff's department used to be the old junior high but it first was the high school if I am not mistaken.

Past bye your house! North Tazewell.

Time to move as far away from DC as possible. I'd love to live in Burks Park

Worked at RC's one summer

Y’all need to dry dry fork it is in north tazewell right at the train station you were at it is a hauler and it os beautiful I have a family cemetery

Thank you. You two are very nice and relaxing. Still want to know if you are married!!

The owner of Riverside Fashions was Ms. Turner.

My grandfather and great grandfather use to drive the street car

Sheriff's office is the old junior high