Interview with Gary Zuckett, Founding member of West Virginia Surface Owners' Rights Organization (WVSORO)

Interview with Julie Archer, Director of West Virginia Surface Rights Organization.

Professor Alan Collins is a distinguished academic in the field of Agricultural and Resource Economics at West Virginia University. Collins spent his formative years in the Western United States, primarily in Phoenix, Arizona, where his father worked for the Bureau of Land Management. His early exposure to natural resource management led him to pursue a degree in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Furthering his academic journey, he obtained his master's and doctoral degrees from Utah State University and Oregon State University, respectively.

Interview with Michael O'Brien.  Topics inlude: Recent Dealings with the Gas Companies. Also present: Miranda Brown, Carrie Kline, Nanci O'Brien and Sophie O'Brien.

Interview with Sherry Becker-Gorby. 

William Bryant, also known as Bill, was born on June 20, 1937, in a small crossroads town called Amlin, Ohio, near Plain City in the northwest part of greater Columbus. His father held various jobs, including milkman, railroader, and a captain in the Columbus police department's corrections division. His mother worked at Woolworths and raised six children, five boys and one girl, with William being the second boy. Despite dropping out of high school in his senior year, Bryant joined the Navy at seventeen and later earned a GED.

Charles R. Winstead, Age 88 (1915-2008). Captain Winstead spent most of his working life aboard a menhaden (type of fish) fishing boat. A powerful and articulate seaman, Winstead elucidates the inner workings of a steam-powered fishing vessel, including singing an example of the chanteys he led as a crew member to draw in the nets. Winstead, the first African-American in the region to acquire a pilot and captain’s license, rode passenger steamboats on several occasions during his younger days.

Rubie Lee Norris (1916-2012). Then still living in a pre-Civil War house built by her great uncle near Topping on the Rappahannock River, Norris remembered riding the steamers to college in Fredericksburg and told vivid stories of clerking in her father’s store, which was supplied by steamers. 

Clarence Benjamin "Buck" Rowe (1921-2005). Interviewed by Carrie & Michael Kline with Dianne Jordan for the Steamboat Era Museum; 11/3/03. At the time of the interview Mr. Rowe was keeping a store at Bena in the Guinea community of lower Gloucester County. The store was established by his father in 1920, at the height of the steamboat era. His vivid memories brought to life details of nearby wharves where he went twice weekly as a young boy with a wagon and team to pick up deliveries for the store. 

Thomas A. Williams (1925-2006). Son of an innovative Menhaden fishing boat captain, Williams provided an inventory of steamboat landings and lighthouses. He described the wide range of goods delivered to and from Northumberland County by steamers.