Tiny Floyd: Among the Giants Who’da thunk it: Flo…

Tiny Floyd: Among the Giants

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Who’da thunk it: Floyd, one of the Ten Top Southern American Cities. (click picture for larger image)

I got notice of this a couple of weeks back before it was public and current in Salon Magazine. I still can’t find a link to the article or image, so if you do, please sent it along.

Whoa! Check out the top picture–from our very own Buffalo Mountain, taken by our very own Weird Uncle Fred of Fragments from You-Know-Where. We just don’t know WHY. Apparently, one of the travel writers that passed through the county last year was smitten by the Floyd Effect.

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Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. And here I thought I moved to Floyd to get away from the “city.” Now it’s a Top Ten Southern American City!?! Watch out for those smitten travel writers.

  2. Congratulations on having your photos in another magazine!

    For a guy that lives on a one lane country road, you sure do get around!

  3. Unfortuately Kenju is probably right. The “It’s beautiful,let’s move there and build on it” mentality is just mind boggling. The sparse population is what makes the place so beautiful. It’s the reason we bought a pre-existing older property rather than helping to clutter up the landscape by building new. We’ve lived in SPRAWL.We’re thankful to be out of it. I welcome this kind of news with about the same enthusiasm as I would upon finding a big fat stinking carcass in my creek!

  4. hopefully it doesn’t suffer the same fate as western north carolina……

    once you start making those lists, the people, developers, etc come flocking!

    but…. lovely photo!!!!

  5. Relax folks, Floyd ain’t heading for that second stoplight anytime soon. Floyd just isn’t convenient enough to a major city to be threatened by sprawl or fast pace development. It’s a big county, there is plenty of room for some more people.

    Besides, Floyd won’t become the darling of the developer crowd until Franklin County is all used up, which is a good 25 years from now 😉

    Sean

  6. Floyd is its own worst enemy if you want employment, but it is a retirees dream if you love the country. It’s also difficult if not impossible to justify the property taxes in Floyd given the dearth of services provided by the town. Bottom line: I hope Floyd never becomes developed or “popular”. And I’m guessing Salon just googled “cool” southern places rather than actually visited them to put that list together. Lastly, Floyd is a micro town at best, city never.