Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park in Big Stone Gap preserves the history of southwestern Virginia through a museum centered on the late-19th-century house built for former Virginia Attorney General Rufus A. Ayers. Designed and built by Charles A. Johnson between 1888 and 1895, the limestone, sandstone, and red oak residence was once encircled by a small moat. The museum focuses especially on the region’s 1890s coal boom, while also interpreting the history of Big Stone Gap, nearby communities, and 18th-century westward migration through the area. The property became state-owned in 1946 and the museum building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.