Where I Trace My Bloodline - Breaks Interstate Park, Virginia/Kentucky

Published late, no internet in the mountains.

Today was a long day. It wasn't a bad day, just long. Today was all about the mission. The mission that gave a name to this story. Today was a day for searching for people from the past. There were a few failures but there was much success.

Last fuel stop in North Carolina

I left Spruce Pine, NC this morning and grabbed gas at the first and last fuel station I would come across for some time. Once fueled, it took no time to cross the state line in to Tennessee, from the very get go this morning however, I would be on country roads, twisting and turning, up and down, like being on a two wheel roller coaster all day

Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN.

And then, a two lane road emerged and just like that I came across this large structure that almost seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. 

Bristol Motor Speedway was preparing for races this coming weekend and I can only imagine what it must sound like down in that bowl with those stock cars going for broke on the short track.

After Bristol, I said goodbye to Tennessee and crossed in to Virginia and began my search for my first target. I was looking for the grave marker for Abraham Potter. Abraham was a private in the Revolutionary War and my great (X4) grandfather. The internet however failed me in my research and if the cemetery he was to be found in existed, I couldn't find it. 

Next up, my biggest disappointment for the day. I had found on the internet during my planning that my great (X3) grandfather was supposed to be buried in the Stone Cemetery near Clintwood, VA. Finding the Stone Cemetery was easy enough, but after walking the entire plot of markers, there was no trace of George Washington Potter final resting place.As I was leaving however, an older gentleman who had been cutting the grass in his pasture pulled up to the fence on his Massy Ferguson and started up a conversation. Mr. Stone (I didn't get his first name) had grown up on the land he was preserving and told me stories how they use to cut back that pasture with horse pulled equipment, how his good friend Ralph Stanley used to stop by for coffee and how he passed up on $10K for a young colt several years back. All black, with four white socks and a white tail, which he stated was incredibly rare. Something else of note I got from Mr.Stone was after I introduced myself as a Potter, he stated enthusiastically, "Well you're with all them Potter's over in Kentucky". I amy not have Found G.W.'s tombstone, but after that, I knew I was heading in the right direction to trace my bloodline.

Breaks Interstate Park

Breaks Interstate Park would be my final destination for the evening and while it would offer me a spot to set up camp for the night, it was also going to be one of the highlights of this entire trip for what it's history had to offer and it's amazing connection to my family. 

The aforementioned Abraham Potter, the Revolutionary War vet from Virginia, had a son named Richard Potter, who traveled to Kentucky and took up farming and distilling in Pike County. As it would happen, all of the land that makes up the Breaks Interstate Park, "the Grand Canyon of the South", was at one time the property of Richard Potter and his wife Mary "Tennie" Potter. Richard Potter is buried here on the park property in a nice little picnic and recreation area known as Potter's Knoll. I spent some time sitting next to the old mans grave and thought about my family and especially my father. All of us descendants from the man who is honored at this park, his former home, and a place that I can truly place as place my bloodline stems from.

Richard Potter and Mary "Tennie" Potter

Yep, it was a long day, but this day is what I came up here for. To track my lineage, find my roots and take some time to remember the greatest man I ever knew. Ronald Edward Potter, my father.