Located between the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Smyth County has had a profound effect on many aspects of local, state, American, and world history. In Images of America: Smyth County, take a journey back through time and visit the town recently named the "Most Historical Spot in America." Travel across the homestead of the first Virginians, who fought the first recorded battle of the new land, and find out how Smyth County is rewriting the history books. See the racetrack in Smyth County where the "Babe Ruth of NASCAR" took the checkered flag. Tour Civil War sites and homes where Stoneman's Raiders took refuge during battles for the most valuable site of the Confederacy.

This work begins in the 1700s, prior to the county's establishment, and records interesting incidents and major historic events of the day, as well as the names and character of many early settlers. There are also rare documents such as Colonel John Buchanan's journal, William Campbell's letter to his wife, and the Tory warning to Campbell. The history then describes the first permanent settlement, and the tumultuous times of Dunmore's War and the American Revolution. Genealogical data and family history are woven into the narrative throughout the volume. This is a complete and relatively modern history, which includes aerial view photographs. Chapters include: Head of Holston Surveys, Col. John Buchanan's Journal, Permanent Settlement, Dunmore's War, The Revolution, County Organization, Political Notations, Churches, Schools, Newspapers, Industries, Banks, Transportation, The War between the States, Negroes of Smyth, World War, Southwestern State Hospital, Towns, Benjamin Franklin Buchanan, Villages and Communities, and Laurel Farm. The original index is retained and lists nearly any name or subject you will want to find.

A companion to Images of America: Smyth County, this volume, Smyth County Revisited, depicts some of the history of the area. Come examine the first land tracts surveyed west of New River. Learn of the vast amount of history surrounding Fort Kilmackronan, which still stands today. Explore the Indian Fields, and learn of the ghosts that still haunt them. Visit the many Civil War sites in this area and tour the localities where Civil War uniforms and supplies were manufactured for the Confederacy. Find out why Smyth County became “the hub of the herbal industry” and how it went on to become the world’s largest distributor of these medicinal remedies. Discover why the county’s first library was located in the ladies’ room of the courthouse. Come survey the many other sites and memorable events that entertained so many generations for decades.

Grayson County is famous in southwestern Virginia as the cradle of the New River settlements--perhaps the first settlements beyond the Alleghanies. The Nuckolls book is equally famous for its genealogies of the pioneer settlers of the county, which, typically, provide the names of the progenitors of the Grayson County line and their dates and places of migration and settlement, and then, in fluid progression, the names of all offspring in the direct and sometimes collateral lines of descent. Altogether somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 persons are named in the genealogies and indexed for ready reference.