Pocahontas County Reclaimed: A Retreat of Story, Land, and Connection by Crystal Good 

HILLSBORO, W.Va. — Pocahontas County may conjure unease for many: it was once home to the National Alliance, a notorious white supremacist group. But in August, the county became the setting for something different — a retreat centered on healing, storytelling, and renewal.

The Great Reset brought women together at the Yew Mountain Center, a 500-acre retreat and educational hub surrounded by Appalachian forest and sky. Participants traveled from Detroit, Michigan; Hampton, Virginia; St. Louis, Missouri; and Charleston, West Virginia, to share in three days of food, fellowship, and reflection.

The host was Ruby Daniels, an Afrilachian farmer, herbalist, and storyteller. Daniels is the founder of Creasy Jane’s Herbal Remedies and earned her Master of Science in Herbal Therapeutics from Maryland University of Integrative Health. She grows heritage vegetables and medicinal herbs in Beckley, West Virginia, and works with landowners to steward ginseng and other forest botanicals.

Meet Ruby

Read more about Ruby Daniels:  Black By God.

At the retreat, Daniels guided participants on foraging talks and offered her handmade teas, soaps, and scrubs. But just as importantly, she told stories. Through narrative, she connected women to her own lineage of healers and root workers while encouraging them to see their own traditions reflected back. In the tradition of Appalachian Hoodoo remedies — making do with what the land provides, using plants for protection, survival, and care — participants shared recipes, rituals, and ancestral memory.

The setting carried its own history. In southern Pocahontas County sits Caesar Mountain, named for a freed man, Caesar, who along with Viney — another freed person — was granted land by his former enslaver. That community grew into a Black settlement that welcomed others, and descendants remain there today. Their story underscores that Pocahontas County is not only scarred by white supremacy but also rooted in Black endurance and belonging.

Throughout the weekend, women camped or shared bunk rooms, cooked together, swam in Yew’s spring-fed pond, and ended each evening beneath the famous Dark Skies of Pocahontas County — a place where the Milky Way stretches clear and unbroken overhead, and the stars shine brighter than almost anywhere east of the Mississippi.

“There is no better cure than nature,” said participant Dr. Karla Mitchell. 

The Great Reset reflected that truth, opening space for Black women to reclaim connection to land, memory, and one another.

Yew Mountain Center is now featured on Black By God’s Rousing & Travel list, recommended as a place where history, farming, and storytelling converge.
Learn more at yewmountain.org.

Crystal Good and Ruby Daniels beside Yew Pond, Yew Mountain, August 30, 2025.