By Ray Cox
Special to The Roanoke Times
Not to boast too openly about the high quality of the constituency for this column, the wit and insight of the many identify them as instinctive journalists with a follow-up question at the ready.
A recent meandering tour of the regionâs mineral springs led to the Catawba Valley and the site of the Catawba Hospital, a state behavioral health complex. In a bygone day, it was a resort known as Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs. Later it was a state-run hospital dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis, which prompted the examination to come.