This case study explores how opportunities for critical, place-based education can be eclipsed by the decontextualized curricula and pedagogies inherent in neoliberal, standards-based early education reforms such as universal pre-kindergarten that contain some progressive elements. Following Schwab (1973), we explore the roles of teachers and place in crafting curriculum and pedagogy. Specifically, we present both contemporary data and historical facts in order to document and analyze how educators in the Arthurdale, WV, area have used teacher lore (Schubert & Ayers, 1992) to "lighten" curriculum and pedagogy away from the dark funds of knowledge of local children and families. Dark funds are the knowledge and epistemologies that do not match with middle-class curriculum standards for success in schooling, but that reflect the realities of local children, families, and communities (Zipin, 2009). By tracing the racialized development of teacher lore in the past and present, it becomes clear that critical place-based educational activities such as natural and social histories and action research cannot be sustaining without an interrogation of how White identities have been constructed and perpetuated through teacher lore and other means over time. We use these findings to make several suggestions for reconceptualizing the roles of teacher lore in place-based education while creating curricula and pedagogies responsive to the local early education context.