Fisher Peak Trails

In summers past, the sounds of bluegrass, traditional and gospel music floated weekly over the hills and trees of Fishers Peak for perhaps the first time since mountain folk settled in the area and gathered with instruments on their front porches years ago.
   
The Blue Ridge Music Center combines a 17,000 square foot visitor’s center and a luthier’s shop in addition to the amphitheater, which has already seen the likes of Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs.
   
A dedicated group of Galax area residents came together to realize the next stage of the Fishers Peak evolution – the building and maintenance of trails through the property, linking the music and history of Fisher’s Peak with its landscape and wildlife.
   
Mary Guynn, a longtime Galax resident and a member of FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway’s inaugural board, has been active in the establishment of the Music Center as a city council member and as a member of FRIENDS.
  
“The Fishers Peak project is close to me because it’s so close to where I live, so I jumped in with all four feet,” she says.  “It’s going to be like no other thing in the United States.”
   
Guynn, Galax Tourism Director Debbie Robinson and Galax resident Roger Hawthorne (who retired to the area from Florida in 1992) spearheaded the formation of a new FRIENDS group, which today numbers about 80, of all ages and backgrounds who love the Parkway and the Fishers Peak area.
   
“A lot of them are music fans,” says Hawthorne.  “Some folks have lived here their whole lives.  We have teenagers – I think our oldest one is in her 70s.”
   
“Volunteering for FRIENDS,” says Robinson, “is a way of assisting in the preservation and enhancement of some of our most precious resources.”
   
Former arkway Superintendent Dan Brown was positive about the Galax project.  “This model of community-based steering committees and work groups should ensure the long-term success of similar collaborative efforts between the Parkway, FRIENDS and corridor communities.”