"I never saw my pine," was a note of regret found in his desk following John Fox Jr.'s death.  And the little girl who sat and dreamed beneath its sheltering arms?

      She, too, was real up to a certain point.

     Jimmy Hodge, a young geologist from Boston, who came to the Gap during those boom days, found in his wanderings through the mountains, a young girl who was so appealing, intelligent and attractive that he persuaded her parents to let him bring her to the Gap and put her in the care of Ms. Jerome Duff (the widow in John Fox Jr.'s story) and let her go to school.  June's real name was Elizabeth Morris from the Keokee area.  Mrs. Duff took her in and put her in the room with her own daughters.  Two of those daughters attended the dedication of the June Tolliver House in 1963 and clearly remembered the little girl who came to live with them in the "Gap" and go to school.

      The child became homesick after three months and Hodge had to take her back home.  There fact ends and fiction begins about June.

      You can visit the June Tolliver House on Clinton Avenue.  It is listed on both the National and Virginia Historic Landmark Registry.

      It was from this incident that John Fox Jr. drew the heart-warming story of June Tolliver and Jack Hale for his novel.

     And Jimmy Hodge?  He lived his lifetime in the Gap, always interested in the young folk, only returning to Boston to die and be buried.

      Devil Judd Tolliver is based on the real life character of Devil John Wright, a frontiersman of local fame.  The mountain area around still abounds in John Wright tales.  It is this self-made man whom John Fox Jr. depicted in the best welling novel TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE as Devil Judd Tolliver.  After the Civil War, one hears John Wright served as a peace officer.  He later worked as a land agenT acquiring acreage of vast holdings for Consolidation Coal Company.  As a peace officer, Devil John engaged in many a shoot-out; as a matter of fact, one story holds that his greatest regret was that he never quite broke even in his life, what with siring 27 children, but having killed 28 men in gun battles.

       John Wright owned and operated a saw mill at the foot of his hollow.  Devil John Wright always kept and loved good horses.  He became such an expert rider that the John Robinson Show hired him to ride for them before their great crowds.

       Devil John Wright was a Justice of the Peace for 16 years and Sheriff for 8 years.  For thirty years he was a Detective working in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia.   Devil John wanted his neighbors to do the right thing, and would have the right thing done if it required bullets to accomplish it.  He reconciled many a brawl that arose between coal operators and citizens when the mountains began to hum with activity.  He was asked if the Red Fox ever came to see him.  "Many a time," was his reply, "Doc Taylor was a well known character.  He was cunning.  A feller never knowed what to expect of him."

       Red Fox Taylor is the most colorful of the villians in THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.  He was an herb doctor, with two years of training at Louisville Medical College, a preacher, an inventor and a "moonshiner."

       Marshall Benton  Taylor, otherwise known as "the Red Fox," was one of the most colorful men evr to roam the mountains of eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia.  John Fox Jr. recognized his unique qualities when he characterized him as "The Red Fox of the Cumberlands" in his novel - TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.  With his "pop" eyes, red hair and beard, he struck an ominous appearance.  John Fox described him as having a dual countenance - one half of his face was an angel, and the other half was that of the devil.  Taylor was, without a doubt, a one-man arsenal.  He carried two .45 colt revolvers, one on each hip.  A wide leather belt held two rows of gleaming shells that he slung over his shoulder, and his Winchester rifle hung over his bank or across his horse.  He also carried a long brass telescope, for his sneakin' and a-spyin', as well as a sheep skin Bible.  On his horse he had saddle bags filled with various herbs and potions that he used in his medical work.  He always wore dark clothes and a special pair of shoes he had made himself.  He would move the heels to the front and nail them to the toes so he could disguise which direction he was going.  Another part of Taylor's life was his religious beliefs.  He was "converted" at a Camp Meeting in Kentucky and afterward preached whenever anyone would listen.  He was hypnotic in his speaking and could always gather a congregation.  However, he was also considered to be rather eccentric in his spiritual concepts.  He claimed to be a "Seer" who was able to communicate with spirits and angels.  He knew the mountain trails well and this knowledge made him seem to appear and disappear at will.  He was hanged in Wise in 1893 for the murder of three members of the Mullins family.  He was hanged in a white suit, preached his own funeral from an upstairs room in the Courthouse, and administered the sacrement to his wife and himself.  He asked to be kept unburied for three days when he declared he would arise from the dead.  It didn't happen.

       Bad Rufe Tolliver is based on the character of Talt Hall, who was the first man to be hanged in Wise County.  Talt Hall's criminal record has probably never been paralleled in the United States.  He is credited with 99 murdders, and, while this is an exaggeration, there is no doubt that he was responsible for the death of 8 to 10 men.  He was a bitter enemy of the "Red Fox."  Like most outlaws of his day, Hall had a career which was greatly enlarged by rumors and the tabloids.  Born in Kentucky, he grew up with Devil John Wright and M.B. "Doc" Taylor.  During the Civil War, Talt Hall rode for the Confederacy with General Morgan.  He was tried for murder in 1866, 1875, and again in 1883 - each time escaping conviction by jurors too perrified to find him guilty.  He killed Police Chief Hylton of Norton, Va. and upon his conviction was hung inside a specially built gallows in Big Stone Gap in 1892.  So ends the story of Talton Hall.  The beautiful laurel covered slopes of the Cumberlands would never again echo to the thundrous roar of his blazing murderous guns.

       At last, Uncle Billy and Ole Hon Beam.  That's their real names!  They were an old couple living in Tennessee where John Fox worked one summer with his brothers.  He said they were the happiest and most contented couple he had ever known.

       The mining industry?  Our iron ore long ago became too expensive to mine, and the old iron furnaces have been discarded.  Mechanization moved in and fewer miners are employed in this modern age, yet coal is still an important resource for energy.  THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE is a delightful documentary of the life the folk who lived in the mountains in the 1890's and how coal was a part of that life.