Gov. Kaine, About this National Geographic Map...

Governor Kaine yesterday issued a press release announcing Virginia's role in the new Appalachian Driving Tours Map, a partnership of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and National Geographic Society. The map insert will be in the April issue of National Geographic Traveler and features 28 driving trails in the nation's Appalachian Region.  Nearly 20 sites along Virginia's Crooked Road and Wilderness Road, from bluegrass venues to state parks, are highlighted as part of an effort to increase tourism in Appalachia.

"Tourism is one of Virginia's most powerful industries and key to the economic development of our smaller communities," Governor Kaine said.  "Tourism provides quality jobs that cannot be outsourced and helps preserve Virginia's unique heritage and culture."

According to the release, tourism is a $17.7 billion industry for Virginia, providing more than 208,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in state and local taxes.  

"National Geographic's recognition of the rich culture and heritage of Virginia's Appalachian region is a feather in the cap of our tourism industry," said Alisa Bailey, president & CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation.  "This new map highlights our ongoing marketing efforts to increase visitation and traveler spending in Virginia by capitalizing upon travelers' ever-growing interest in our heritage."

I wonder if the National Geographic map includes stops in the lovely areas containing Appalachia's 450 blown up mountains.  I'm sure tourists would love to see that!  Maybe they could include a tour of a coal-fired power plant.  Or maybe an airplane tour.  "If you were to board, say, a small prop plane at Zeb Mountain, Tenn., and follow the spine of the Appalachian Mountains up through Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, you would be struck not by the beauty of a densely forested range older than the Himalayas, but rather by inescapable images of ecological violence", writes Grist.  Sounds like fun!  
Or better yet, maybe tourists could watch as they "use the same mixture of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel that Timothy McVeigh employed to level the Murrow Building in Oklahoma City -- except each detonation is 10 times as powerful, and thousands of blasts go off each day across central Appalachia".  That sounds like more fun than watching Old Faithful in Yellowstone!

Or maybe tourists could spend the day touring one of the 6,700 "valley fills" in central Appalachia were bulldozers have pushed hundreds of feet of forest, topsoil, and sandstone to get at the coal.  Unfortunately, tourists won't be able to enjoy the over 700 miles of healthy streams that have been completely buried by mountaintop removal and the thousands more that have been damaged.  But come back when there's a storm if it's running water you enjoy.  The runoff coming off the naked mountains is really cool!  It's perfect for whitewater rafting if you can dodge people's houses and cars pulled along with the rushing water.  There's also plenty of "hiking" trails as the coal industry has kindly provided a vast circuitry of haul roads winding through their rubble.  Bet your friends back home have never experienced something like that before!  

And think of all the revenue coming as tourist gift shops sell respirators like crazy!  It's a new fashion statement that is not only necessary for breathing while you tour Appalachia but makes you look just oh so cool!  It's better than mouse ears at Disney World!  Oh, and while you're at the gift shop, be sure to pick up some bottled water.  The drinking water in Appalachia is just a little polluted and is a lovely shade of orange and brown.  But then again, considering that the headwaters of the Appalachia feed the drinking water supplies of thousands of folks living in the mid-Atlantic area, that bottled water is probably a little tainted too.  Oh, well.  At least it's not brown like the water is for all those folks living in that area.  Yum!

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