K.W. Stanley/"History in the Valley"
Published: May 5, 2008

During the early 1900s certain neighborhoods in Waynesboro and Basic City acquired nicknames. One was “Tater Hill,” northeast of Gateway Park off New Hope Road. This article explores the legend of Steele’s Run Hollow bordered by A and C Streets, Calf Mountain Road and Route 340 North, nicknamed “the Philippines.”
Basic City was chartered in March 1890. The C&O and Shenandoah Valley Railroad (later N&W) tracks crossed here in April 1881. By 1887, the Crimora mine was shipping 20,000 tons of manganese to Pittsburgh.
Entrepreneurs envisioned a manufacturing and commercial hub developing in Basic City. Basic City Mining, Manufacturing and Land Company was organized by Samuel Forrer in September 1891.
Within a year, 375 industrial and commercial properties were sold. Factories located in Basic attracted “blue collar” workers from outside the area and mountaineers off the Blue Ridge. A commercial district of general stores, cafés, bars and hotels developed near the N&W and C&O Depots along Commerce Avenue.
A number of rough characters from the Steele’s Run Hollow area were often drunk and initiated bar and street fights. Such behavior by the early 1900s was not that unusual at bars in railroad towns along the Blue Ridge, including Front Royal, Luray, Stanley, Shenandoah, Elkton and Basic City.
Locals condemned these bar and street fights in Basic, including good families in Steele’s Run Hollow who were respected employees of local factories. They avoided Commerce Avenue businesses and prohibited their children from visiting these areas. Alcohol was often the cause of these fights and rough behavior.
Between 1908 and 1914, Basic City and Waynesboro residents had voted to become “dry” communities. Local Prohibition did not stop drinking or street fights on Commerce. Illegal moonshine was sold by several “characters” who resided in the Steele’s Run Hollow area.
This legend is also linked with the Spanish-American War between Spain and the United States, which occurred in 1898, and the “Philippine Insurrection” which followed. In the Treaty of Paris, Spain transferred ownership of three colonies to the U.S. including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The United States paid Spain $20 million for the Philippines, which Spain had colonized 300 years earlier.
After the Treaty of Paris, the United States sent 11,000 troops to occupy the Philippines and defeated the Philippine army by 1902, but groups of Filipino insurgents numbering almost a 100,000 continued the battle until 1913 using bolos, spears, lances, ambushes and massacres, and melted into the streets during the day and pretended friendship to the Americans.
More than 126,000 additional United States troops were required to defeat the insurgency and conquer the country. The U.S. granted the Philippines self-government in 1916 and eventual independence, which occurred in 1946. More than 4,300 Americans and one million Filipinos died during the war between 1902 and 1913.
Locals later noticed a similarity between some persons from the Steele’s Run Hollow area, who, “under the influence” were often involved in bar and street fights on Commerce at night, and the Philippine insurgents between 1902 and 1913.
These Steele’s Run Hollow “characters” were friendly during the day but at night acted as roaming warriors participating in fights and retribution. Some suggested these characters were like those in “the Philippines.”
The name, associated with Steele’s Run Hollow, stuck and became legend.
K.W. Stanley is a Waynesboro resident, historian and TNV correspondent. Contact him at .