Fries, Virginia

A Place Profile of the Emory & Henry Watershed Project

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In a photograph from a spot overlooking the Fries dam, one can see the town of Fries laid out on a hillside. It is from this image that we can see everything that made Fries unique in the twentieth century. It is a town carved out of the Appalachian wilderness, along the New River, ironically… believed to be among the oldest rivers in the world.

It was the power of this river that attracted Col. Francis Henry Fries, an entrepreneur from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to this area at the turn of the twentieth century. Fries and his family had already succeeded in producing cotton with waterpower and found this spot to be ideal for his next venture. He likely realized the great profit potential in marrying that experience with depressed Appalachian wages.

Natural Environment

He constructed the town, the dam, and the factory - finishing in 1903 - and spent $2 million on the project. This was enormous amount of money in that era (according to one source it would be equivalent to over $70 million today). Of course, it would not be possible to build such a project under current expectations of comfort, safety, and sanitation. The town houses did not offer insulation, underpinning, electricity, indoor plumbing, or accommodation for automobiles. Heated with coal stoves, individual houses were built on tiny lots and offered the barest promises of hope and establishing home roots.

Would-be mill workers flooded into town from all corners of the east coast, drawn by the promise of textile work and a new place to call home. Imagine what it must have been like for the field hands and residents of the little villages dotted around eastern Grayson County to see a town of almost a thousand people and a modern factory spring up within a couple of years.

Fries is an urban island in the Appalachian wilderness. Forests, farms, and planted trees surround the town.

Fog rises over the New River at Fries, The town lies in a valley along the river, so fog is an everyday phenomenon at certain times of the year.

Fog is trapped in the valleys around Fries. From this vantage point, one can see how fog is trapped in the valleys around Fries. It is often several hours after sunrise before the fog dissipates.

On the ground in Spring Valley, an outlying community near Fries, fog collects among the trees and the pastures. Spring Valley is a farming community and is a remnant of the large family farms that once once surrounded the town. One of the first post offices in the area was located in Spring Valley.

Built Environment

The early years of Fries were troubled ones. Like a frontier town, the streets were dirt, filled with mud, feces, and spit. The factory, the dam, and the hydropower facility were not built using today’s safety practices. Photographer and activist Lewis Hine visited the town in 1911 and documented the living and working conditions of the children in Fries who worked alongside the adults.

The hierarchy of the town mirrored its industry. Those who lived closer to the mill were of

higher status. Meanwhile, a further walk away, textile factory workers went through three shifts of 7-3, 3-11, and 11-7. Concrete steps remain in place where walkers trod back and forth between home and work.

Yet, despite all the hardship, the factory continued producing during the Great Depression (1929-1939) and saved many families from financial ruin and starvation. During that time, the town and the factory produced cotton for its customers, profits for its owners, and pinto beans for its workers.

"Some of the youngsters working in the spinning rooms of the Washington Cotton Mills." -Hines, 1911 (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

"One of the youngest spinners in the Washington cotton mills."-Hines, 1911 (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

View of the Washington Cotton Mill in Fries, Va in 1911 (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

"Group of adolescent spinners in Washington Cotton Mills." -Hines, 1911 (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Kevin Combs, a talented digital storyteller and native of Fries, stands in the same spot as a child laborer at the textile factory pictured by Hines in 1911.

The mid-nineteen seventies were an idyllic time for Fries. The Vietnam War had ended with the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. The town had lost only one son in the conflict. Mill hands drove muscle cars to work. Vehicles which occupy Manheim’s auction floors and fetch five and six-figure prices today cruised the streets of Fries every Saturday night.

Times change. By the late 1980s, the mill had been sold to outside interests. These remote corporate owners decided that the mill was no longer producing sufficient profit. They stripped the facility of anything fungible or useful and donated the hydro-electrical facility – the town’s only economically viable asset - to a local university. That university subsequently sold it to an out-of-state power company.

The corporate overlords left the albatross of a mill to the town. Overnight, the tax base

disappeared, and the town continues to suffer from the effects of those decisions as the

dam and the hydroelectric facility were the only revenue-generating assets left in town.

Eventually, the mill became inoperable as a working facility and the town sold it for

scrap—barely recuperating the cost of cleanup. Although the dam and the hydroelectric

facility are still in operation, the town receives no benefit from those assets.

Mt. Carmel Church is rarely used these days. It is in a community called “Clito”. Clito used to be a busy, populated area with a store and a grinding mill situated along Elk Creek. Even this building was once a one-room school. In the 1950s, residents of remote communities surrounding Fries began migrating closer to town, leaving abandoned houses. (Combs)

Dairy barns and silos once dotted the area around Fries in Grayson County. Carnation Dairy in Independence ran trucks on routes around the county picking up milk in cans from those small operations. Dairy farms are now concentrated, large operations and the small dairy farm is no more. The land is being converted to other uses, such as Christmas tree farming. This photograph is a striking image taken in that context - the Christmas trees appear to be consuming the diary barn. (Combs)

Small communities surround Fries. At one time, community identity was very strong. Fries area residents of a certain age can easily identify the communities and their loose boundaries. Younger residents and the increasing number of people moving into the area are not familiar with these community names. Signs such as this one announcing the boundaries of the community are disappearing. (Combs)

As a result of a shrinking population, increasing Federal regulations on the dispensing of gasoline, and a change in expectations for personal wealth, the small, community gas station has disappeared around Fries. In the 1970s or so, there were over 25 gas stations in the Fries area. Now there are two. (Combs)

Human Culture & History

Today, the town relies on tourism as an economic engine. Airbnbs and the historic

Washington Inn offers places to stay for travelers eager to experience the New River, the

New River Trail, and the numerous other hiking and biking trails in the area.

Appalachian string music is a draw, as Fries played a pivotal role in the discovery of

early country music by record companies.

If Bristol is the birthplace of country music, Fries is where it was conceived.

Susie Anderson reached her 100th birthday in November of 2023. Her father owned property in the Taylors Chapel community near Fries and that is where she grew up. Her upbringing was quite different from that of other African-Americans in the Fries area. A segregated community existed near Fries - literally on the other side of the railroad tracks from the town. (Combs)

Billy Wayne Bourne was - by trade - an over the road truck driver and an equipment operator. He was better known around Fries as a musician and a storyteller. He passed away in October 2023. (Combs)

Marilyn Jones helps to shear sheep at the family farm in Spring Valley. Sheep shearing is an intensive process and requires a large number of helpers. There are only two sheep shearers in southwestern Virginia and they work as a team. They go from farm to farm all over SWVA. (Combs)

Apple butter making is a dying art. Apple butter is a sweet topping that goes on biscuits, toast, and other foods. Churches in the area make apple butter as a fundraiser in the fall. It requires a large number of participants and is usually a community building day as well as a fundraiser. Community members show up at the church several hours before daylight. (Combs)

Oral Histories of Fries