The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

In 1908, John Fox, Jr. (1862-1919), wrote his best-selling book, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, a romance novel set in the Appalachian region amid two fictional feuding families, the Tollivers and the Falins. Outsider John Hale wants to transform the area by mining the coal and bringing prosperity to the community and to himself, but he finds himself falling for the young and lovely June Tolliver, complicating his ambitions. 

Fox was born in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where Nelson and Lucy Jane Hyder and family were living at the time the book was published. During our honeymoon, my wife and I visited John Fox's house, which is now a museum. We also attended a stage version of the novel performed at the Barbara Polly Theater in Big Stone Gap.

In 1913 Harry Carroll (1892-1962) and Ballard MacDonald (1882-1935) wrote a popular song based on the novel. It was sung in the recording posted below by Albert Campbell and Henry Burr. Although the novel was set in Kentucky, the song brings the action to "The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia," located somewhat to the east of Big Stone Gap. The girl's name is June in the song. June was also the name of one of Nelson and Lucy Jane's younger daughters (1916-2001), who was born in Michigan on the first day of June.

 

Perhaps the most famous version of the song was sung by Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the 1937 film, Way Out West, featuring the two actors' typical comedic touch. This version became popular in the United Kingdom, of all places, in 1975.