A Beautiful Day, a Beautiful Car Show, and Most of All, a Beautiful Memorial
The 2nd Annual Michael D. Chandler Memorial Car Show filled downtown Big Stone Gap with cars, motorcycles and people, but the real reason for the afternoon was remembering one of the town's own.
The 2nd Annual Michael D. Chandler Memorial Car Show filled downtown Big Stone Gap with cars, motorcycles and people, but the real reason for the afternoon was remembering one of the town's own.
8-22-26– BIG STONE GAP, Va. — You couldn't have ordered much better weather for a car show Saturday afternoon in Big Stone Gap.
Wood Avenue was lined with classic cars polished until you could see your reflection. There were muscle cars, trucks, Jeeps and motorcycles, with plenty of folks walking around kicking tires, looking under hoods and talking horsepower.
It was the 2nd Annual Michael D. Chandler Memorial Car Show, and there was plenty worth looking at. But the most important thing on Wood Avenue wasn't made out of chrome.
It was the reason everybody was there.
The show honors Officer Michael D. Chandler of the Big Stone Gap Police Department, who was killed in the line of duty in 2021. Friends and community members took something Chandler loved, cars, and turned it into a way to remember him while helping young people who want to follow a similar path of public service.
All proceeds from the show benefit the Michael D. Chandler Memorial Endowed Scholarship, which supports students pursuing careers in law enforcement and corrections at Mountain Empire Community College.
Natalie Chapman, owner of the newly opened The Orangerie in downtown Big Stone Gap, said the show had been rescheduled from an earlier date. That turned out to have a silver lining. Organizers had more time to prepare, promote it and make the event bigger.
By Saturday afternoon, Wood Avenue East near the Big Stone Gap Visitor Center had been closed to traffic and turned over to the show. Chapman said people were coming from as far as an hour and a half away, bringing everything from classics and muscle cars to trucks, Jeeps and motorcycles.
If it had wheels and somebody was proud of it, there was probably room for it on Wood Avenue.
Registration was $20 per car or motorcycle, and every registered participant received an entry for a chance to win a new 350 engine from O'Reilly Auto Parts. There were also door prizes, giveaways and a 50/50 raffle, along with awards for Best in Show, Top 10, Best Motorcycle, Best Classic Car, Best Truck, Best Jeep and Knight Rider's Choice.
The Wise County Knight Riders Car Club organized the event, but this wasn't just another Saturday car show with trophies waiting at the end.
Chandler's memory was woven through the afternoon. Even among all the horsepower and chrome, you didn't have to look far to remember why the street had been closed in the first place. The show grew out of a desire by his friends and community to remember a hometown police officer through something he enjoyed.
That makes the trophies and prizes secondary.
Money raised Saturday will go into a scholarship carrying Chandler's name and helping students preparing for careers in law enforcement and corrections. A young person who may never have met Michael Chandler can receive help with an education because of the life he lived and the community that hasn't forgotten him.
That's a memorial that does more than sit somewhere with a name engraved on it.
Saturday's show also brought something every small downtown needs: people walking the sidewalks.
The Big Stone Gap farmers market was going on nearby, giving visitors another reason to spend some time downtown. Local businesses had people passing their doors, and Chapman had a particularly good view of the activity while celebrating the grand opening of her new business, The Orangerie.
Chapman sees the new business as more than a place to rent for a wedding, birthday party or baby shower. She wants it to be a gathering place where people can hold workshops, classes and events and, maybe most importantly, find another reason to come downtown.
A Pilates class had been held there the night before the car show, and Chapman is already planning a Halloween-themed "Witches Night Out" for October.
Small downtowns don't always come back because somebody lands a multimillion-dollar project or cuts a ribbon in front of a building everybody forgets about six months later. More often, they come back a storefront at a time. A farmers market here. A new business there. A festival or car show that gets people out of the house and back onto Main Street.
Saturday had a little bit of all of that.
There were beautiful cars lined along Wood Avenue, a new business opening its doors, a farmers market going on nearby and people who had driven from around the region just to spend an afternoon in Big Stone Gap.
But when you stripped away the chrome, the horsepower and the trophies, the best thing about Saturday was pretty simple.
A community remembered one of its own, and it found a way to make sure his name keeps helping people.
That's a pretty beautiful memorial.
Link to more car show pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Qxn5VQQnTcw5mCq78
From King Coal and the Coal Wars to Woodboogers, Granny Witches, Hillbilly Hoo-Doo, Melungeons, moonshine legends, and mountain folklore, the mountains around Big Stone Gap VA have inspired storytellers for generations.
No wonder this region helped inspire bestselling novels like The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Adriana Trigiani’s Big Stone Gap books and upcoming television series, and just over the mountain in Harlan, Kentucky, the world of Justified. Experience more Big Stone Gap stories with A Boy From Crackers Neck, The Keokee Triangle and the upcoming Ghosts of the Moonshine Mafia.
Welcome to:“The Big Stone Gap Storyverse in Appalachia”
Where the mountains still remember.
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