Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley  
 
 
 
 
 

The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley unveiled Harry McDaniel's "Ghost Train on May 10th 2003. To commemorate this day in the Center's history, local and state dignitaries were on hand to help with festivities.

Congressman Rick Boucher; Bruce Wingo, Chairman of the Virginia Board of Conservation and Recreation; Foster Billingsley, representing the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and Michael Dowell, Executive Director of the Artisan Center of Virginia and past Executive Director of the Fine Arts Center, were joined by many members of Pulaski's town council and Pulaski County's board of supervisors.

Delegate Benny Keister was master of ceremonies and Congressman Rick Boucher brought those in attendance up to date on the New River Trail Sculpture project. Congressman Boucher reminded everyone that former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton designated the New River Trail as a Millennium Legacy Trail in 1999, on of 50 trails selected in the United States. Harry McDaniel's "Ghost Train" sculpture symbolizes the trains that once ran along the New River Trail. They can no longer be seen, but the remaining traces of the railroad still allow us to imagine the noisy mass of a train swooshing past, the ground vibrating, the windpushing at us, the dust smells of smoke, coal or lumber swirling all around.

The sculpture was designed with the help of a CAD program. The placement of each sign and telescope was critical within 1/8" in three dimensions. Each silhouette can only be seen clearly from one point. Harry McDaniel spent some 1,300 hours designing and erecting "Ghost Train".

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Visit Ghost Train on the New River Trail at the Draper Terminus at I-81, Exit 92 and traveling back towards Pulaski to milepost marker 4.1
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