Audiotur I-81 Virginia Historical Highway Markers

The Virginia Historical Highway Markers Program began in 1927, and was the first to be established in the country. It rapidly became a very popular way to learn more about the state's diverse history. Of course, in 1927, automobiles traveled much more slowly, and never operated on an interstate highway system as vast as the one we enjoy today.

Unfortunately, the slower pace of life, which facilitated the early marker program, has itself become a thing of the past, and many tourists and residents only experience Virginia from our busy modern highways. With the exception of the handful of historical highway markers that are co-located at Virginia Welcome Centers, travelers along the interstates never see, let alone have a chance to stop and read the thousands of markers that are often just a stone’s throw from the highway corridor. We hope you will find that DHR's "I-81 Virginia Historical Highway Markers Audio Tour" solves this problem.

The process to record most of the markers within a 15 mile buffer of I-81 is a work in progress intended to involve middle and high school students and their teachers with their local history and heritage tourism programs. Occasionally, we've had to adjust the timing between the audio for the markers in this story-packed corridor to ensure the recordings reach you in a continuous flow.

As long as you obey the speed limit you'll find that a steady stream of stories will keep you company between Lynchburg and Winchester on I-81. As more recordings are made, this tour will be updated until it spans the distance between the borders of Maryland and Tennessee. You can begin the tour from any point, and it will not matter which direction you are travelling.

Students and faculty from Signal Knob Middle School and Central High School in Shenandoah County have made the recordings used in this tour. We hope you enjoy the stories that come to life through their help during your journey through Virginia, today.