MEADOWS OF DAN, Va. – Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway is not only an icon and a favorite stop for travelers – it is also important to nearby businesses that depend upon the tourists who come to see the mill and eat at the restaurant.
But the restaurant closed this year, and the mill is in disrepair.
Things look busy at the Poor Farmer’s Market in the Meadows of Dan, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and about a mile from the iconic Mabry Mill.
Felicia Shelor/Owner Poor Farmers Market: “We have a lot of country store food products, like apple butter,” Felicia Shelor, the owner of the store said as she showed us around the Market.
The business does particularly well when the Blue Ridge Parkway is busiest -- in the fall when tourists come to watch the leaves change color. In late October there seemed to be a lot of business. But looks can be deceiving.
Whether it’s the Poor Farmers Market, a staple here for 4 decades - or the other shops and eateries in town, business would be even better if Mabry Mill was doing better.
Mabry Mill - A famous roadside stop
The Mill depicts the Appalachian life of Ed and Lizzy Mabry.
“And when people come up here, generations upon generations, so they find out how Ed Lizzy lived and worked. They find out a lot about their own families and so in Appalachian culture,” said Mike Ryan a retired national park ranger who shared the story while demonstrating how wooden chairs were made when the mill was in its heyday.
But, these days the popular tourist attraction is in disrepair. The wooden shingles on the roof are twisted and weather-worn.
From the inside daylight shows the massive number of leaks.
“Yes, it’s raining inside the Mill, and it’s causing the building to become unstable, Shelor said, standing inside and pointing to the roof where daylight shines through in hundreds of places.
Outside, the once-beautiful pond needs to be dredged and the restaurant, famous for its pancakes is closed until further notice.
It never opened for the 2024 season, greatly reducing the number of tourists.
“People, they would come here to eat, and then they would go to town to shop and see the local people. And they don’t do that, you know. Like they don’t want to come because they can’t have their pancakes, you know. And so it’s devastating to us because they’re not here,” said Trinity Goad president of the Meadows of Dan Community Association.
The restaurant closed when the vendor who contracted with the Park service pulled out, because the help was too expensive.
“Well, they closed because the federal mandated minimum wage was 17.40 which meant that, if you were a dishwasher, you got 17.40 if you’re a waitress, you got 17.40 and they couldn’t make that money to pay all these people 17.40 per hour, so they had to shut down because, you know, you don’t run a business and lose money,” Goad said.
“We were disappointed, and I know our park neighbors will be disappointed to learn that there were no potential operators that stepped forward in this last call for new concession contract,” said Leesa Brandon spokesperson for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
After the previous vendor left, the Park service advertised for another vendor and got no responses. They tried to attract food trucks – with the same result.
10 News asked if the minimum wage was the key factor in the lack of interest from potential vendors.
“I think historically, restaurants have a really slim, small margin to make a profit,” Brandon said. “The seasonality, both small margins for a restaurant, the choices and availability of other services in and around the area, those are all factors, I think that point to part of the struggle for making it a viable, profitable business right now.”
And then there’s the pond, once pretty as a picture. It’s not anymore. It’s filled in with silt and weeds which have taken over a large percentage of the space that once reflected the mill wheel and the building that houses the inner workings that once ground flour from corn and wheat.
Shelor says she found a solution with a local contractor who would clean up and dredge the pond for $50,000. However, the government requires environmental and historical studies first, bringing the total cost to $600,000.
The Park Service Confirms those numbers.
“I think that that number is probably an estimate that reflects the comprehensive work, the studies, and the actual dredging and any other kind of compliance, everything related to it,” Brandon said.
In the big picture, Mabry Mill is just one stop on the 469-mile parkway, which is hundreds of millions of dollars behind on badly needed maintenance. The people of Meadows of Dan know that, but they are impatient for the Park Service to send money to this project and shore up a facility that has driven business for decades.
In part 3 of our series, we’ll take a closer look at the numbers, and a way that the Mill is getting support from another group that might make all the difference.