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The Associated Press

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ROANOKE, Va. - What do the Carter Family music group, Francis Gary Powers and Daniel Boone have in common?

The legendary country musicians, U-2 pilot shot down over Russia and the frontiersman all have connections to Virginia's coal country. That made them eligible for honours on a new Southwest Virginia Walk of Fame in Big Stone Gap.

The 23 initial inductees - some of whom are still living - were honoured at a ceremony unveiling the walk featuring engraved tiles on the grounds of the Southwest Virginia Museum. The porcelain tiles are fashioned the resemble the native limestone and sandstone used in the late 19th-century house where the museum is located, said director Sharon Ewing.

Ewing said the idea for the walk came from Virginia Beach, which has a Virginia Legends Walk honouring people from all over the state. The coalfields pathway is restricted to people who were either born or spent at least five formative or creative years in the coalfield counties of Lee, Wise, Scott, Dickenson, Russell, Buchanan and Tazewell and the city of Norton.

The Virginia Beach walk honours Gen. George S. Patton of Lexington, for instance. Its southwest counterpart will have a tile for actor George C. Scott, the native of Wise who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Patton. "Lots of folks could claim Boone," Ewing admitted, adding that his influence in Virginia was great.

Boone and his team blazed The Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky in 1775, according to the museum's Web site, and before the end of the 18th century 200,000 settlers had followed the route he marked.

Details at Southwest Virginia Museum: http://www.swvamuseum.org