Trails
Pick a topic and follow it stop by stop. Each stop has a one-minute version up top.
Your vote & who decides
The county in numbers
Sources: U.S. Census QuickFacts , USAFacts , Cardinal News on the Weldon Cooper Center projection .
Your vote & who decidesWho decides things
The members named in 2026 coverage are Chairman Tim Hess (Hurricane District), Vice Chairman Jeff Cooper (Garden), Lee Dotson (North Grundy), Roger Rife (South Grundy), Trey Adkins…
Your vote & who decidesTuesday's election (Nov 3, 2026)
Read on the local races. When the Grundy mayor runs unopposed and the council has exactly as many candidates as seats, the outcome is set before the polls open.
Your vote & who decidesHow Buchanan votes, from union Democrat to 85% Republican
Tuesday is the right moment to look at the long arc. Twenty-six years ago Buchanan was one of the most reliably Democratic counties in Virginia.
Your vote & who decides · Nov. 5, 2026What Buchanan decided: Nov. 3 election results
5,393 people voted in Buchanan County on Nov. 3, about 38% of the 14,336 registered. The county backed Bert Mizusawa for U.S.
Money, work & the land
Where the county's money goes
Supervisors unanimously adopted a $197.7 million all-funds budget for FY2026-27. The general fund is $61.12 million, with the largest items being social services and children's ser…
Money, work & the landCoal: still the engine
Coronado Global Resources' Buchanan Mine Complex produces metallurgical coal, the kind used to make steel, not to burn for power. After an expansion, it posted record first-half 20…
Money, work & the landThe big tech and energy story: Twin Valley
Diversified Energy, a Birmingham, Alabama gas producer that bought Buchanan County gas wells in 2025, wants to put a fuel cell running on coal-mine methane on the athletic fields a…
Money, work & the landMined land is the county's real estate
In a county this steep, flat ground is scarce, and much of the flat ground that exists was made by mining. That's why nearly every development idea in Buchanan, from an airport to …
Money, work & the landCoal pays for the roads, and the check is shrinking
Most counties leave roads to the state. Buchanan doesn't, and the reason ties straight back to coal.
Money, work & the landCheap houses, a low tax, and a reassessment coming due
Housing here looks affordable on paper and is hard to find in practice. The tax on it is one of the lowest in Virginia, the stock is old and heavy on mobile homes, and the county's…
Money, work & the landWho hires here, what it pays, and the trail bet
Earlier editions kept coming back to one number: only one in three adults here is in the labor force. This edition looks at the jobs themselves, using the federal payroll count (th…
Money, work & the landCoalbed methane, forced pooling, and the gas royalties that sit in escrow
Coal gets the headlines, but under much of Buchanan there's a second mineral business running quietly: methane drawn out of the coal seams through thousands of wells. Who owns that…
Money, work & the land · Nov. 7, 2026Deer rifle season opens Nov. 14: Buchanan is bucks only
The general firearms deer season in Buchanan County runs Saturday, Nov. 14, through Saturday, Dec. 12 (Virginia DWR). Buchanan has no general either-sex firearms days.
Power, water & roads
Broadband and connectivity
Fiber is arriving in pieces. Point Broadband lists several Buchanan build areas: Greenbriar/Vicey/Prater, Loggy Bottom and Pea Patch (finished August 2021), Lynn Camp and Home Cree…
Power, water & roadsGetting help when it counts
The tech story that matters most day to day here isn't data centers. It's whether your phone works on the road, how fast an ambulance can reach a hollow, and whether the hospital i…
Power, water & roadsThe river, the pipes, and who runs them
Every big project in this county, from the new high school to the four-lane 460, is partly a flood story. The Levisa Fork and creeks like Knox Creek and Slate Creek have shaped whe…
Power, water & roadsThe electric bill, and who decides it
Buchanan has no electric co-op and no municipal utility to speak of. Homes here buy power from Appalachian Power (APCo), the American Electric Power subsidiary that serves about 54…
Power, water & roads · Nov. 3, 2026The flood buyout program is still buying homes, one deed at a time
A federal flood program for buildings damaged in the April 1977 flood (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) is still moving homes out of harm's way in Buchanan County.
Power, water & roads · Nov. 3, 2026Snowplows, metal tracks and new county roads: what the board is doing about your road
The county is hiring snow removal vendors for county roads (Sept. 14 minutes; Nov. 2 agenda). Since August, metal-tracked equipment is banned from county roads except in a declared…
Health, mines & help
Addiction, recovery, and the jail bill
The flood and utility story is about pipes. This one is about people, and it shows up in the county budget too.
Health, mines & helpBlack lung and the dust rule on hold
Every other edition of this briefing has treated coal as an economy: jobs, severance taxes, road money, bankruptcies. This one is about what coal does to the people who still dig i…
Health, mines & helpWho inspects the mines, and the rules being rewritten
The eleventh edition covered the slow danger underground, dust. This one covers the fast ones, roof falls and methane, and the two layers of inspectors who are supposed to catch th…
Health, mines & help · Nov. 7, 2026Heating help: the fuel assistance deadline is Friday, Nov. 13
Virginia's yearly Fuel Assistance applications close Friday, Nov. 13 (Virginia DSS). You can apply online, by phone at 855-635-4370, or on paper at the Buchanan County Department o…
Health, mines & help · Nov. 7, 2026Two health coverage deadlines: Medicare by Dec. 7, the state Marketplace by Jan. 29
Medicare's open enrollment ends Monday, Dec. 7 (Medicare.gov). Virginia's Insurance Marketplace is open Nov. 1 through Jan. 29, and you need to sign up by Dec. 31 for coverage that…
Schools & the next generation
Schools: four high schools became one
Southern Gap High School opened Aug. 21, 2026, merging Grundy, Hurley, Council, and Twin Valley high schools into a roughly 200,000-square-foot campus for grades 8 through 12 with …
Schools & the next generationThe two graduate schools the county is fighting to keep
For a rural county its size, Buchanan has something unusual: two graduate professional schools. The Appalachian School of Law sits in Grundy, and the Appalachian College of Pharmac…
Schools & the next generationInside the classroom, test scores, teacher pay, and the pipeline
The first edition covered the building: four high schools merged into Southern Gap. This one looks at what goes on inside, because the school system is the county's biggest long-te…
Schools & the next generation · Nov. 3, 2026What's next for the old Twin Valley High School property
The county board had a public hearing on its agenda for Monday, Nov. 2, on giving the old Twin Valley High School property at Pilgrim's Knob to the county's Industrial Development …
Latest news
Heating help: the fuel assistance deadline is Friday, Nov. 13
Virginia's yearly Fuel Assistance applications close Friday, Nov. 13 (Virginia DSS). You can apply online, by phone at 855-635-4370, or on paper at the Buchanan County Department o…
Health, mines & help · Nov. 7, 2026Two health coverage deadlines: Medicare by Dec. 7, the state Marketplace by Jan. 29
Medicare's open enrollment ends Monday, Dec. 7 (Medicare.gov). Virginia's Insurance Marketplace is open Nov. 1 through Jan. 29, and you need to sign up by Dec. 31 for coverage that…
Money, work & the land · Nov. 7, 2026Deer rifle season opens Nov. 14: Buchanan is bucks only
The general firearms deer season in Buchanan County runs Saturday, Nov. 14, through Saturday, Dec. 12 (Virginia DWR). Buchanan has no general either-sex firearms days.
Your vote & who decides · Nov. 5, 2026What Buchanan decided: Nov. 3 election results
5,393 people voted in Buchanan County on Nov. 3, about 38% of the 14,336 registered. The county backed Bert Mizusawa for U.S.
Schools & the next generation · Nov. 3, 2026What's next for the old Twin Valley High School property
The county board had a public hearing on its agenda for Monday, Nov. 2, on giving the old Twin Valley High School property at Pilgrim's Knob to the county's Industrial Development …
Power, water & roads · Nov. 3, 2026The flood buyout program is still buying homes, one deed at a time
A federal flood program for buildings damaged in the April 1977 flood (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) is still moving homes out of harm's way in Buchanan County.
Power, water & roads · Nov. 3, 2026Snowplows, metal tracks and new county roads: what the board is doing about your road
The county is hiring snow removal vendors for county roads (Sept. 14 minutes; Nov. 2 agenda). Since August, metal-tracked equipment is banned from county roads except in a declared…