In north central Virginia there is a local tale--The Legend of Jump Mountain, which purports to explain the origins of the Hayes Creek Indian Burial Mound. A highly romantic legend, it immortalizes post colonial intertribal warfare during the early nineteenth century while ignoring the antiquity of the mound and the local descendants of its…

Describes Southwest Virginia's rich tradition of folklore and culture and the need for its preservation. Summarizes the author's time-consuming process of preparing an inventory and indexing the vast archival collections gathered by students in American Folklore classes at Mountain Empire Community College and by the Southwest Virginia Folklore…