BLUE MOUNTAIN MEMORIES: A Story of a Blue Ridge Mountain and the People who live there

"Blue Mountain Memories," Richard Long's current book, resulted from his building a vacation cabin at Blue Mountain in 1972. The mountain was in the great range of 5 million Shenandoah Valley acres owned by Lord Fairfax of Winchester. As a young man, George Washington was hired by Lord Fairfax in 1748 to be his surveyor. It is likely that Washington surveyed what was later to become Blue Mountain. Mosby's Rangers, the Southern guerilla fighters of the Civil War, hid out on the Mountain and made raids, from there, on Union forces. The earliest settlers of what was to become Blue Mountain and nearby Rattlesnake Mountain were escaped slaves. A community still exists on Rattlesnake that is proud of its African-American ancestors. The mountain came alive again in 1955 when an exuberant Frenchman and his wife, Henry and Colette de Longfief, purchased 800 acres from lumberman James McDonald. They named it Blue Mountain. This book is about the fascinating history of the mountain and the people from all over the world who eventually settled on the mountain.

Richard Long is an author, newspaperman and playwright, A native of Syracuse NY he has traveled the world and has written feature articles for the Associated Press from Africa, India and Southeast Asia.He graduated from Le Moyne College, Syracuse and did graduate work in journalism at Fordham University, New York City.Long began his newspaper career as a reporter on the Syracuse Herald-Journal. He was the Washington Correspondent for the Syracuse Newspapers in the 1960s and covered the office of Sen. Robert F Kennedy (D-NY) during the Vietnam War era.His first book was "Nowhere A Stranger" the story of 700 Medical Mission Sisters (70 medical doctors) and their building and maintaining of 35 hospitals in the poorest areas of Africa, Pakistan, India, Vietnam and South America.Long's play, "Shenandoah Night Train" was produced on Washington, DC stages. It is about the life of the first person killed in the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry, Heywood Shepherd. The play was made into a television movie. It won the ACE, the highest award of cable TV, in 1983. "Blue Mountain Memories", his current book, resulted from his building a vacation cabin at Blue Mountain in Virgina in 1972. The mountain could have been surveyed by the young George Washington for the famed Lord Fairfax who lived nearby. Mosby's rangers, the rebel guerilla fighters of the Civil War, hid out on the mountain.The book is about the fascinating history of the mountain and the people from all over the world who eventually settled on the mountain.Currently, Long is a columnist and Washington Correspondent for Eagle Newspapers of Syracuse, NY, especially the Skaneateles Press of Skaneateles, NY, five miles from his home in Auburn.