Roadside Dandelions

If you wander deep enough into the forest it’s hard to say who or what you’ll come across,exotic looking salamanders,hidden waterfalls,or Lonnie Gibson Jr.

That’s how we found him,in the middle of the forest bent over messing around in the dirt. Curious and wanting to say hello,I approached cautiously and announced myself every few feet. Trying to see what he was up to; I hadn’t noticed that I was practically on top of him when he spun around and locked his eyes onto mine while raising a menacing looking pickaxe in his hand. The ghost left my body in an instant and I spoke in a squeaking high-pitched tone I’ve never heard come from myself before. He just kept staring,right into my soon to be cold,dead eyes. I continued repeating my name and apologizing. Not letting his eyes give up their lock on my soul,he reached up to his ear and slowly turned up his hearing aid.

“Oh,you scared me!” he laughed as he clutched his chest

Nervous laughter came from both of us as our heart beats returned to normal. While properly introducing ourselves I repeatedly apologized for the scenario I had created, and found that I had stumbled onto one of the nicest people in all of Appalachia. What followed was a conversation you would expect to have with a friend you hadn’t seen in ages.

It may be surprising you don’t bump into Lonnie more often when you’re roaming the wilderness. According to Ed Daniels,co-owner of Shady Grove Botanicals in Mill Creek West Virginia,

“Any day when he isn’t already preoccupied, he’s in the woods.”.

Retired from a career in coal mining,Lonnie doesn’t use his pickaxe for coal anymore. It’s used now for freeing up the dirt around the roots of medicinal plants such as Black Cohosh,Ginseng and Stone Root (pictured). Raised to understand the medicinal properties some plants have,Lonnie has been sustainably harvesting and gathering plants since 1979. Mostly used by friends and family,he’s now collecting for Shady Grove Botanicals as well.

“He likes to help people. If he knows you want a couple pounds of ramps, he’ll go out of his way to go dig you a mess for free.” Ed explained about Lonnie’s general demeanor.

While speaking with him, Lonnie got very animated as he described the great Ginseng haul he had back in 2016. In fact, he was pretty animated and happy the whole time we spoke. Even though he had been interrupted from his work, I think he would have stayed talking to me until it was dark and we had to build a fire to keep warm.

We talked about everything from plants and work,to relationships and the gratitude of being able to live in such a beautiful place as West Virginia. We discussed some of the hard times we’d both had,but he remained positive about them as he had obviously spent the time necessary to reflect, heal and learn from them. Although the day was getting on and finding a good place to camp was number one on the list, you could say that the more you talk to Lonnie,the more you want to keep talking to Lonnie.

“He’s truly a social butterfly” describes Ed of him. “Lonnie will stop in town and talk to ten different people before he finally gets in his truck and leaves.”

There are many wild and wonderful things in the hills of West Virginia,and we should all be grateful that Lonnie Gibson Jr. is one of them.