Patrick County, Virginia

Stuart and Blue Ridge plateau heritage - from Stuart's connection to Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart (the county seat is named for the flamboyant Confederate cavalry commander who was born in Patrick County in 1833, and the county's cultural identity reflects its Southern Appalachian heritage and pride in its native son) to the Blue Ridge plateau's distinctive landscape (Patrick County sits on the Southern Blue Ridge plateau, a high-elevation terrain of rounded ridges, cold mountain streams, and hardwood forests that creates a climate and character distinct from the Virginia Piedmont below - supporting trout fishing, forestry, and the small-scale farming that has defined mountain life in the Virginia-North Carolina border highlands).