Walter Nicklin

How best to describe that sound now bringing the Rappahannock hills alive? Humming? Droning? Whirring? Buzzing? Whining? It's not Congress arguing over the farm bill but the sound of something more in the natural rhythm of things: The Brood II cicadas, which emerge from their underground hermitage every 17 years to propagate.
Read More »

The temperature has gone wildly up and down the past week or so in Rappahannock County – the subject of much local conversation, though par for the course for a Virginia springtime. Meanwhile, another measurement reached a record high a few days ago but went largely unnoticed, much less remarked upon.
Read More »

The core mission of the Rappahannock News has always been – and will continue so – to report local news, provide useful information and provide a forum for discussions on issues important to Rappahannock residents. But while our purpose remains steady, the paper itself, like the community it covers, is constantly changing.
Read More »

You know you’re in Rappahannock County when you see rows of “zombie seats” facing westward. Zombie seats? I’ve only recently heard the expression – referring to the Adirondacks or other outdoor chairs lined up on Rappahannock residents’ yards to watch the sun set over the Blue Ridge.
Read More »

Usually the conversation here is about the outsiders who want to have a place here in the country. But what of the newgoers or the go-theres? In just this past week, I’ve encountered two people who are pulling up stakes here to move elsewhere. Why? Arthropods!
Read More »

Let nature take its course? Nowadays that’s easier said than done. Any Rappahannock resident who has battled stink bugs or has let a field go fallow knows what I mean. Nature, so disrupted by human activity, is no longer natural.
Read More »

Any working definition of what it means to be “rural” typically includes agriculture, but rural America’s representatives in Congress seem more enamored of city-like industrial agriculture than old-fashioned family farming. After all, Big Agriculture means big money.
Read More »

How would you define Rappahannock County? Most definitions would probably include the word “agricultural,” but as the number of actual farms continues to decline, perhaps it's time to be more honest about Rappahannock's appeal.
Read More »

We’re told that we humans are to have dominion over the earth, and yet Rappahannock’s springtime reminds us that often what’s most enchanting can be found in precisely those things, and those events, we have absolutely no control over.
Read More »

In the “statusphere” that is Rappahannock County, good looks and influential jobs don’t count for much. Education, money and power – those old status standbys – maybe mean a bit more. But most important by far is family background – especially whether you have “roots” in the county.
Read More »

Given Rappahannock County’s disproportionate number of older citizens and Baby Boomers, the conversation here is often about the things we think we’re now entitled to. But what of the things we Boomers owe to others?
Read More »

The recent transportation bill passed in Richmond eliminates the 17.5-cent per gallon tax on motor fuels and penalizes those of us trying to save money at the pump by owning a fuel-efficient vehicle.
Read More »

Two weeks ago this newspaper published a front-page story on the possibility of a Family Dollar store rising from the bucolic landscape that is Rappahannock’s, and yet . . . nothing. That's just not like Rappahannock.
Read More »

On the fourth Friday of every calendar month the newspaper invites Rappahannock residents and readers to join us for coffee and conversation. We decided on the fourth Friday as a play on words with “the Fourth Estate,” an old-fashioned reference to the news media.
Read More »

All politics are local, in the oft-repeated phrasing of a late Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. But when it comes to environmental issues, everything is global. For we all live downstream, even here in Rappahannock County.
Read More »

“Stay in Big Washington where you belong,” an earlier editorial implored our congressman, Rep. Robert Hurt. The exact opposite could be said of Rappahannock County's leaders: stay put, stick around, listen and learn!
Read More »

Recent awards in Rappahannock County got me thinking about a new book on Italy’s Venice – that “exquisite corpse,” its beauty embalmed, its once vibrant commercial and city life now lying in state. Let's not let our county wind up the same.
Read More »

Here in Rappahannock, reporting the news (and hearing, but not reporting, the gossip) turns conventional wisdom on its head, proving that life in the country is anything but sleepy and simple.
Read More »

Last week Republican Rep. Robert Hurt paid his first official visit to our neck of the woods as our new incumbent congressman, visiting with local business people in Warrenton. What a waste of time – his and ours!
Read More »

This year's Citizens of the Year choices reveal the rich, multi-layered nature of our truly remarkable Rappahannock community, and the positive influence that just a couple of committed individuals can have for the benefit of us all.
Read More »

On clear, cold, star-filled nights in the timeless, natural landscape that is Rappahannock County, we can be forgiven if we don’t pay especially close attention to the ticking of clocks, even when striking midnight on Dec. 31.
Read More »

Last Friday in Little Washington, for the briefest of moments, the streets were totally deserted. Only the Rappahannock News' young reporter and editor were present.
Read More »

Despite what the Mayan calendar has predicted, the world hasn't yet ended. But the world as I once knew it surely has come to an end, a while ago, which the latest school shooting in Connecticut only confirms.
Read More »

Rural Americans, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack warns, are in danger of “becoming less and less relevant,” as rural America's assets are more often overlooked.
Read More »

Folks here in agrarian Rappahannock can be forgiven for believing that individual liberty married with thoughtful rationality can conquer all. But the nearby "cliff kill" site reminds us otherwise.
Read More »

This coming Sunday’s Christmas in Little Washington parade is not only a holiday celebration but also a wonderful example of the community spirit that animates Rappahannock County. The essential building block of this community is all about trust.
Read More »

The animating principle of Thanksgiving remains to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. For us here in rural Rappahannock, that is understood in concrete, soil-under-the-fingernails ways. Here are a few of the Rappahannock-centric things that are well worth our gratitude.
Read More »

As the David Petraeus scandal unfolded, Big Washington media breathlessly reported the Little Washington connection: Paula Broadwell, the woman at the heart of the scandal, was in Rappahannock County to celebrate her 40th birthday.
Read More »

With the hard-fought elections now finally over, it’s time to focus on more enduring themes, like the natural world. Take, for example, the woolly bear caterpillar.
Read More »

The job of a newspaper is neither to reflect on the past nor to predict the future – but, instead, to report the present. Art, on the other hand, is timeless, “news that stays news,” as the poet Ezra Pound memorably framed it.
Read More »

Over the 200-plus-year life of the United States, Rappahannock County has helped elect some of the United States Senate’s most respected and influential leaders, and on Nov. 6 we have a chance to continue that tradition.
Read More »

In a season where issues divide us, it's important to remember the things we all still have in common -- such as taking care of our local rivers.
Read More »

Autumn’s coming on: though stating the obvious, still worthy of further comment. The signs are at first subtle but nonetheless unmistakable: from heat-seeking stink bugs to insect-eating martins and swallows.
Read More »

A few years back, if I remember right, a pop song called “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” lamented the disappearance of the rugged, individualistic, masculine American male. Whenever I drive west on U.S. 211 near Amissville this week, I find that a new refrain keeps coming to mind: Where have all the Virginia...
Read More »

Despite constituent calls, Rep. Eric Cantor’s Republican leadership did not allow the bipartisan Farm Bill to come to a vote before Congress adjourned last Saturday. House Democrats – chanting “work, work, work” – had noted that since the 2008 agriculture laws expire at the end of this month, to adjourn was irresponsible. Many Republican...
Read More »

“A farm bill is a jobs bill,” read some of the protest signs last week as farmers (several hundred by best estimates) gathered in Big Washington to press Congress for passage of a farm bill, which has been stalled by the House Republican leadership. An unusually bipartisan group of lawmakers welcomed the farmers. The...
Read More »

Unlike Sigmund Freud’s legendary cigar, a flag is never just a flag – especially the Confederate battle flag. Just ask Harris Hollow resident and “Dukes of Hazzard” TV star Ben “Cooter” Jones. Last week rumors swirled on the Internet that, starting in January, Warner Brothers (which holds the license for all “Dukes of Hazzard”...
Read More »

Our man in Washington (Big Washington, that is) will be missed. Yes, Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader, will no longer be Rappahannock’s voice in Congress, for the county has been gerrymandered out of his 7th district into the 5th. Our new representative, to be decided by the election in November, will be either Robert...
Read More »

The end of summer is descending upon Rappahannock, presaged by almost imperceptible changes in the natural world around us – of which we, despite humankind’s most arrogant efforts, remain a part. The days are longer, the nights cooler. Plants are beginning to shade subtly toward the pastels of fall – which takes its name...
Read More »

Almost upon us is Labor Day, the traditional start of serious political campaigning for the November elections. Based on what’s happened so far this summer, it will be a heated fall. But given the newspaper’s civic responsibility, we will endeavor to provide clear and crisp (like an old-fashioned autumn day) reporting on the candidates...
Read More »