Maryville College biking through on March 10!

If you’re visiting in Buchanan Saturday March 10 and you see a large group of visitors, not the usual couples hitting the antiques shops, it will be the 11 member bicentennial bicycling group from Maryville College, Tennessee. They are retracing the steps the school’s founder, a Presbyterian minister, took 200 years ago that led him to start a college in the untamed hills of Eastern Tennessee.

In 1801, Isaac Anderson was studying for the ministry when, at age 21, he accompanied his extended family in a migration west from Brownsburg, Virginia, a place located in Rockbridge County. Forming a caravan of cattle and wagons, they crossed the mountain passes to new farmland in eastern Knox County.

The first Spring Break bike trip was conceived and organized in 1988 by Mountain Challenge founder and Maryville College alumnus Bruce Guillaume.“When I came up with the idea, I was really interested in organizing an ‘active’ trip,” he said. “At the time, I had never heard the term ‘Alternative Spring Break;’ I just wanted to organize a Spring Break trip that involved something besides laying on a beach somewhere.”Since then, the annual trip has taken students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends on various routes. Trips always include overnight stops in small towns along the way. And yes, a van will accompany the bikers, going ahead for a segment so they can catch up. 

            “This was also a chance to show people – not just our students – that small towns in America are great, and they have great people,” he said. “People in these towns have fed us, put us up overnight and welcomed us with open arms. It’s a great experience.”            This year’s 330-mile bike trip is something Guillaume has been planning for a while.“I’ve been talking about an ‘Isaac Anderson Bike Trip’ for years and jumped at the chance to finally do it during the College’s Bicentennial year,” he said. “I hope this year’s trip gives participants a greater appreciation for the trip made by the Andersons and other pioneer families.”

In Buchanan, host church Buchanan Presbyterian and its interim pastor “Skip” Hastings will show the group around, then take them for supper at a local restaurant and to a movie at the town’s lovely restored Buchanan Theater. They’ll depart on Sunday by 8:00 a.m.I

f you get a chance to see any of these folks around town on the 10th, be sure to stop and greet them. Let them know a Botetourt town is truly a great place to visit.

–Around Botetourt by Priscilla Richardson