Craig County Tourism

Last week I was just chugging along through the work week, when I received a wrong number call.  Once the caller realized who he had called, he asked, “Oh…is this Wilderness Adventure there in New Castle?”  I responded yes inquisitvley.  The caller turned out to be one of the new owners of Big Pine Trout Farm.  He informed me that they had bought the property back in June and have really worked hard to make some major improvements.  I was totally unaware that the place had even be bought out.

The man I was speaking to was named Chris Richardson and he actually lives and works in the Baltimore area, if I recall properly.  He works on the website, helps book groups and I’m sure does a ton of other stuff while his buddy Jimbo Chewning runs the fishing trips and manages the property itself here in New Castle.  After having a nice conversation with Chris for awhile he said he would get Jimbo to give me a call sometime and set up a meeting.  I figured it would be at least a week before I heard back from them, if ever.  I get so many calls up at camp that really never come of anything so I’m used to it now.

Low and behold, about five minutes later Jimbo calls me up and we end up making an appointment for the very next day for him to check out our property at Wilderness Adventure.  He drove up to camp after lunch and we had a very nice meeting.  Jimbo seemed like a real go getter that has a lot of plans for the Big Pine property and all of its business aspects.  It turns out they are selling extremley fresh and delicious trout to the fresh market in the Grandin area of Roanoke.  They are now renting the refurnished buildings on their property year round to both members of their fishing trips and other interested parties in the slow months.  The third aspect of the business is setting up exclusive and top of the line fishing trips for a great rate.  You have the opportunity to catch 5 trout and then Jimbo, who claims to be a top notch chef, will prepare them for you for dinner.  It just really seemed like they had a good business and a lot going on down there.  It got me thinking what a shame it is that there is so much going on in Craig County that people from all over the area, including people right inside of New Castle, are totally unaware of.  Jimbo and I both discussed how virtually none of our business comes from the area.  We both however made verbal agreements that we would try to shoot each other business and both seemed to think we could have a valuable two way relationship.  I think that is important, especially during these economic times, for all of us in Craig County to think of ways we can help each other out.

If you have any ideas for the blog, even if you don’t feel like writing it yourself, or have any other tourism ideas feel free to email us.  The job of the tourism committee  is to help the entire community interact and thrive.  I know I plan on passing as much business as I can to my new friends over at Big Pine, I also plan on going by for a visit some day soon.  I’m not a very good fisherlady but I will certainly consider buying a few delicious fish for dinner one night or even suggesting that my out of town guests stay the night there for a new adventure.  I suggest you go check it out for yourself and start talking with other businesses that you could have a mutual relationship with in Craig County.

Julia Bradford, Group Program Director at Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing

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