Known over the years as Big Glades, Gladesville, and Gladeville, Wise took its current name in 1924 after Henry Alexander Wise, governor of Virginia before the Civil War. Located on the road between Union Kentucky and the Confederate railroad at Abingdon, Wise had a close view of the war. Since the late 1800s, coal and lumber have shaped life in Wise, and significant natural gas reserves in the county are likely to influence its future. The locally produced Music of Coal recorded songs inspired by the lives of people who mine the region’s bituminous coal, including “Explosion at Derby Mine,” about the nearby 1934 disaster that killed 17 miners, while survivors escaped through an abandoned shaft and two men at the mine mouth survived being hurled 150 feet by the blast. In 1954, Clinch Valley College was formed in the county seat and expanded access to higher education in the coalfields region; Dr. Papa Joe Smiddy served as biology professor, director, and chancellor from 1954 to 1985, and in 1999 the school became known as the University of Virginia's College at Wise. The Wise County Fairgrounds has long stood at the center of the town’s cultural life, presenting traditional music for decades, while the Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, reflects the wider musical heritage of southwest Virginia, where old time mountain music, bluegrass, and gospel have been sustained through families, venues, festivals, concerts, radio shows, and jam sessions.