Saltville, VA

Saltville is a Smyth and Washington County town whose name comes from the salt beneath the valley. The salt caverns are still used for natural-gas storage, but Saltville’s story runs in several directions: the Museum of the Middle Appalachians covers geology, the Civil War, the company-town era, and Woodland Indian history; the Saltville and Saltville Battlefields historic districts keep the older town in view; and rocket fuel made at the local chemical plant powered Apollo 11’s trip to the moon. Downtown and the Holston River sit inside that layered story. Saltville is the kind of Appalachian town where geology, industry, war, and space history all meet under one name.