The Great Wagon Road

River Road shops enrich region

A recent trip to the Buffalo County city of Alma reminded me of the artistic vibe there that makes spending a summer day there so enjoyable.

Alma, the Buffalo County seat, has always had an unusual flair. This town of about 1,000 is built into the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. Some of its streets, such as Orange Street, aren't streets at all but stairs - some lined with summertime flowers - climbing the hillside. Historic buildings line the city's Main Street.

Evidence of the arts in Alma extends beyond those stairways and quaint homes. In recent years the city has become home to a growing number of art-related businesses. A stroll down Main Street takes visitors from one art shop to another. There is the Weaving Studio near Soul Sisters, which is a few doors down from the Gypsy Wagon, which is next to Art & Soul. A ways down the street is the Wings Over Alma Visitor Center, which is near the Mississippi River Pearl Jewelry Co. The list goes on.

In addition to making for an entertaining day trip, the art businesses offer visitors often one-of-a-kind gifts. They also offer small towns such as Alma an opportunity to create a vibrant local economy.

For much of the past decade that recipe proved to be successful. Other small communities along Highway 35, most notably the tiny Pepin County village of Stockholm, have attracted residents from the Twin Cities, Rochester, Minn., and the Eau Claire area during summer and fall months, eager to buy artists' work and sample the quaint, slower pace of life along the Mississippi.

Unfortunately, the economic recession of recent years has revived the term "starving artist." The large weekend crowds that gathered in Stockholm, Pepin, Alma, Red Wing, Minn., and other parts of the region have shrunk. Concerns about paying for homes, food and gas mean art purchases no longer are part of many people's budgets.

Art shop owners in Alma and other locations along the Highway 35 corridor have noted the significant dip in business in the past couple of years.

Sarah Gailey, co-owner of Art & Soul, told me 2009 was an especially difficult year for artists.

"People were definitely cutting back on what they were buying," she said. "It hasn't been easy."

Despite the downturn, Gailey and other Alma artists I talked with seem relatively upbeat about their business prospects. They acknowledged continued economic challenges and said their future is anything but certain.

The Great Indian (and Wagon) Road - Little Bits of History Along ...

Marker No. Q-4

Marker Text: The Great Indian Road, called Philadelphia Wagon Road by many settlers was developed by Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) warriors traveling in the 1700s through the Great Valley of the Appalachians (which they called Jonontore) from Cohongaronto (north of the Potomac), to raid the Catawba in the Carolinas. In 1743, Iroquois headmen complained that Europeans had settled along the road, a treaty violation. The Lancaster Treaty of 1744 clarified the road's direction and acknowledged the Iroquois' right to travel through Frederick County to New River settlements and farther south. This road later brought immigrants to the Valley in Conestoga wagons. Today U.S. Route 11 generally follows the historic road.

Location: On U.S. Route 11 (Martinsburg Pike), 0.1 miles north of Interstate 81, Exit 317, north of Winchester. Grouped with marker A-2 (Action at Rutherford's Farm) and marker A-38 (Hackwood Park). Erected by the Department of Historic Resources in 2008.

  Today, most people travel through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia on Interstate 81 and though they can see the Blue Ridge Mountains and take in some of the beauty of the valley, they really miss the real wonders that can be witnessed in the valley. The interstate highway in the Shenandoah Valley parallels an earlier main highway, U.S. Route 11 or the Valley Pike. If you were to take the time to get off the interstate even for a short distance and travel Route 11 you can see the valley in a whole new way. Even Route 11 is only the modern version of a much older historic road that went through the valley and was initially developed and used by Iroquois warriors traveling from the Potomac River to the Carolinas.

  This marker located just north of Winchester, Virginia, in a small park in front of the Rutherford Crossing Shopping Center just north of Interstate 81 exit 317, tells the traveler a little bit of the history of the road that passes through here. The earliest creatures to use this route probably a thousand years before humans, were buffalo who discovered the route of least resistance traveling the valley. Native American Indians later followed these same old trails.

U.S. Route 11 is the background of the photo behind the marker and is the current version of this old road in Virginia.