Damascus, Virginia In The 1920s

Damascus, Virginia's Laurel Avenue circa 1920.

These days the small town of Damascus, Virginia is a thriving tourist destination with thousands of visitors enjoying the many outdoor activities the area has to offer each and every year. Damascus' Laurel Avenue is lined with businesses that are more than happy to serve the needs of the numerous hikers and bikers that are always passing through this "Trail Town".

Other small towns now look at Damascus and try to think of ways to duplicate its spectacular success, but they're finding its model a hard one to copy. Damascus has the good fortune of being located smack in the middle of some of the country's most beautiful scenery, and the popular trails that pass through those scenic mountains and valleys all lead straight into town - including the heavily-traveled Appalachian Trail.

Yes, life is good in Damascus these days, but there was a time when that wasn't the case. In fact, the town started out as basically one big lumber yard. In the early part of the 20th century, countless thousands of trees were harvested from Shady Valley, Tennessee and many parts of southwestern Virginia. The logs were then hauled to Damascus or nearby Sutherland, TN where they were sawed into planks before being sent by train to parts far and wide. The work was hard but plentiful...until the region's supply of timber was depleted.

Several manufacturing plants opened and eventually closed in Damascus, temporarily providing ways for the townspeople to earn a basic living. But the town's standard of living remained relatively low until the 1990s when the tourism boom began. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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