Bike route brings Virginia’s local histories into view

Tom Ewing had biked stretches of U.S. Bicycle Route 76 for the better part of a decade before he started to see it differently — not simply as miles of Virginia road, but as a string of places where local history opens onto something much larger.

“I realized the route served as an interesting platform for thinking about history, in terms of local, historically significant places that could tell a larger history of Virginia as well as the United States,” said Ewing, a professor of history and associate dean for graduate studies and research in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

As America250 commemorations unfold across the commonwealth, a partnership between Virginia Tech and local communities is helping cyclists, residents, and visitors discover those histories. With support from the Center for Economic and Community Engagement’s Vibrant Virginia program, the project is also helping communities along the route tell those stories in their own voices.

U.S. Bicycle Route 76 traces its roots to the “Bikecentennial,” a series of cross-country bicycle tours organized for the nation’s 1976 bicentennial. In 1982, it became one of the nation’s first two U.S. Bicycle Routes. Its Virginia section runs more than 550 miles between the Kentucky state line and Yorktown, connecting mountain communities, rural landscapes, historic sites, and coastal destinations along the way.

Ewing began with two stops: Christiansburg Institute, founded after the Civil War to educate formerly enslaved people and later a regional school for African American students across Southwest Virginia, and the Catawba Tuberculosis Sanatorium, which opened in 1908 and treated tuberculosis patients for more than 50 years. From there, he kept going, identifying historic landmarks along the length of the route.

Working with faculty and staff from Virginia Tech Publishing in University Libraries and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, the team identified 30 historic locations and told their stories through a podcast series.

For Grace Kostrzebski, a history and religion major set to graduate next spring, the project offered the kind of experiential learning that turns classroom study into public work.

She researched and wrote podcast scripts, contributed to published articles, and created posters for partner museums, building skills in writing for different audiences, public speaking, exhibit design, and social media. She served as the lead writer and researcher for episodes about historic churches and communities along the route, including stories shaped by the Civil War, Reconstruction, religion, race, and local identity.

The experience also helped her land a museum internship with Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria.

“I've been able to use my experience with the project as a jumping-off point to pitch myself to organizations,” she said. “Focusing on local histories reveals that everybody is important — local communities often tie into the larger national history in a significant way.” 

That connection between local and national history now shapes the project’s next phase. With support from a Vibrant Virginia seed grant and the Virginia Association of Museums, the team is helping towns along the route share their histories through public projects.

The effort, called Public Exhibitions, Displays, Art, and Logos, or PEDAL, supports museums, historical societies, local governments, and regional partners as they create displays, signs, artwork, and other experiences that welcome cyclists and visitors while connecting community stories to the nation’s 250th anniversary.

PEDAL grants are supporting projects across the route, including museum displays in Pulaski, signage in Damascus and Jamestown, children’s artwork in Lexington and Rockbridge County, a bench in Botetourt County, and public art in Charles City County.

As those projects take shape, the research is moving off the page and into public experience. Organized rides from Williamsburg and Roanoke are planned to bring cyclists along Route 76 to encounter the installations and the histories they highlight. The team also plans to adapt the podcast into a book, with a free digital version and low-cost print copies.

“This unique partnership between the Virginia Association of Museums and Virginia Tech highlights how art, history, and culture can be useful tools for creative placemaking, which serves as a catalyst for economic development in communities across the commonwealth,” said Casey Jenkins, executive director of the Virginia Association of Museums.

For Scott Tate, associate director for community innovations at the Center for Economic and Community Engagement, part of Outreach and International Affairs, that connection between storytelling and economic vitality is central to the work.

“Vibrant Virginia was created to support exactly this kind of work — projects that begin with Virginia Tech expertise but grow through community partnerships,” Tate said. “When communities can tell their own stories and highlight the places that matter to them, that becomes part of their economic vitality.”