Backcountry Notes

The history and practice of fishing for trout, bass, and bream in the Backcountry

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Columnist George Will, ordinarily a dour fellow, has brightened my day with a column titled, "Beer: Is There Anything It Can't Do?"  Just when we thought that no-news-worth-printing stupefaction was beginning to set in, just when we thought that we couldn't read one more ominously-toned political piece from Will or Fred Barnes or Michael Barone or Robert Novak, along comes George to explain why beer - - good ol' beer - - is responsible for the rise of civilization.

Whether they came from the British Isles or continental Europe, the settlers of the Backcountry shared some common traditions, including the ancient practice of gathering to trade, sell produce, and settle disputes.  Various Backcountry gatherings carry on this ancient tradition - - street fairs and county fairs, Fourth of July festivals, farmers' markets, and even flea markets.

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The Valley of Virginia was once home to a substantial apple-production farm industry, and there are still many producing orchards.   Apple trees grow old and eventually have to be replaced, at which point there is applewood.  This makes a passable firewood but applewood chips have a much better use: smoking trout.

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By the summer of 1780, four years after the publication of the Declaration of Independence, the war of American Revolution was going badly for the Patriot side and the mood of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia was dark.  George Washington and the Continental Army had endured, but they had failed to move the British out of the mid-Atlantic and New England colonies.  The British had developed a plan to end the war:  beginning late in 1779, they made a move the the south, to the Carolinas and Georgia, where there were Tory militias and where the Continental Army was thin.  They came so close to winning the war with this strategy that the outcome came down to one place, one day, and a few hundred men.

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