North America/United States of America/Virginia/Big Stone Gap/Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park/

Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park

• Location & Contact Information
  • Address: 10 West 1st Street Big Stone Gap VA USA 24219-0742
  • Telephone Number: +1-276-523-1322
  • Official Website: [1]
• Overview

Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park is a Virginia museum, run as a state park, dedicated to preserving the history of the southwestern part of the state. It is located in Big Stone Gap , in a house built in the 1880s for Virginia Attorney General Rufus A. Ayers. The structure was acquired by the state in 1946 from a foundation managed by C. Bascom Slemp. Much of the museum collection focuses on the coal boom of the 1890s; there are also exhibits dedicated to the history of Big Stone Gap and the surrounding area, and the story of the pioneers that migrated westward during the eighteenth century.