Today's Features

INDEPENDENCE ― A meeting is planned for June 6 to discuss plans to open a prison ministry at the new River North Correctional Center in Independence.
According to reports, neither the Virginia Department of Corrections nor Chaplain Service Prison Ministry of Virginia has funds to place a chaplain at the prison.
The Rev. Terri Gregory, pastor of the Independence United Methodist Church, said plans are to organize a “River North Ministry Council” made up of ministers and laypeople in the surrounding counties of Virginia and North Carolina.

Heather Lynn Poole of Galax and Joseph Eric Sapp of Fries were united in marriage Feb. 16, 2013, by the Rev. Andy Edmonds and the Rev. John Williams at Gospel Chapel in Galax with family and friends.

The bride is the daughter of Elvis and Rhonda Poole of Galax and the granddaughter of William “Bill” Spencer.
She graduated from Carroll County High School. She works at Bojangles.
The bridegroom is the son of Mary Sharlene Sapp of Fries.

WHITETOP — Grayson Highlands State Park is a beautiful place to visit, hike, camp or just get away from your regular routine. Just be sure to keep your eye to the sky for fast changing weather conditions and always go prepared.
After my many visits there, I always had a lingering disappointment in the back of my mind every time I was about to make my way down the long winding road out of the park – I still had yet to see the infamous wild ponies that inhabit the balds of the mountain top, which I had heard so many stories about.

Moving a mountain with steam shovels and explosives and hollowing out the earth below through tunneling presented danger and challenges at Gossan Mines in Carroll County.
Work was periodically interrupted as various kinds of emergencies would occur.
Newspaper archives on the mines held by the Carroll County Historical Society Museum contain articles on different kinds of problems that arose at Gossan Mines.