Molloy - Hiking through History Virginia

Hiking through History Virginia

Exploring the Old Dominions Past by Trail

Johnny Molloy

HELP US KEEP THIS GUIDE UP TO DATE

Every effort has been made by the author and editors to make this guide as accurate and useful as possible. However, many things can change after a guide is publishedtrails are rerouted, regulations change, techniques evolve, facilities come under new management, and so on.

We would appreciate hearing from you concerning your experiences with this guide and how you feel it could be improved and kept up to date. While we may not be able to respond to all comments and suggestions, well take them to heart, and well also make certain to share them with the author. Please send your comments and suggestions to the following address:

Globe Pequot Press

Reader Response/Editorial Department

PO Box 480

Guilford, CT 06437

Or you may e-mail us at: editorial@GlobePequot.com

Thanks for your input, and happy trails!

This book is for our forebearers in the Old Dominion who made the history and to those who strived to preserve it.

Copyright 2014 Morris Book Publishing, LLC

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

FalconGuides is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.

Falcon, FalconGuides, and Outfit Your Mind are registered trademarks of Morris Book Publishing, LLC.

Interior photos by Johnny Molloy

Text design: Sheryl P. Kober

Project editor: Lauren Szalkiewicz / Julie Marsh

Layout: Sue Murray

Maps by Alena Joy Pearce Morris Book Publishing, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Molloy, Johnny, 1961

Hiking through history Virginia : exploring the Old Dominions past by trail / Johnny Molloy.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4930-1047-9

1. Hiking--Virginia--Guidebooks. 2. Historic sites--Virginia--Guidebooks. 3. Virginia--Guidebooks. I. Title.

GV199.42.V8M66 2014

917.5504--dc23

2014004139

The author and Globe Pequot Press assume no liability for accidents happening to, or injuries sustained by, readers who engage in the activities described in this book.

Contents

A tranquil section of trail belies the battlefields violent past ().

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to all the people who preserved history before we ever got here. Thanks to DeLorme for the fine GPS that was used to create maps for this book. Thanks to Sierra Designs for providing me with great tents, sleeping bags, and clothing for the outdoors. Thanks also to the folks at FalconGuides.

Most of all thanks to my wife Keri Anne for accompanying me on the trail and at home.

INTRODUCTION

What a pleasure it has been to pen this guide to Virginias historic hikes. Using Virginias rich past as a backdrop, I have selected forty hikes that are scattered throughout the Old Dominion, taking you to the most fascinating places where Virginias past can be experienced by trail. These historic hiking destinations include Belle Isle, a menagerie of history on the James River in Richmond; Manassas Battlefield on the outskirts of Washington, DC; Shenandoah National Park, where vestiges of forgotten pioneer lifeways can be explored; and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, where Daniel Boone himself led settlers into what was then the uncharted West.

And there is more, like hiking to see a nineteenth-century lighthouse on Assateague Island astride the Atlantic Ocean, strolling the Virginia Creeper Trailan old railroad grade-turned-path deep in a mountain fastnessor walking through Chippokes Plantation, a 400-year-old working farm in the Tidewater. The book includes trails of varied lengths and difficulties, as well as different types of destinations, from sites visited by George Washington himself, such as the Great Falls of Virginia, to places like the Shot Tower, where musket balls were made on the frontier, to Raven Cliff Furnace in the Jefferson National Forest, where iron was processed from raw ore.

Virginia is one of the most history-laden states in the Union. Being a writer of outdoor guidebooks and a student of American history, I tackled this project with great enthusiasm. When preparing this book I realized that readers, even those going on historic hikes, want to know the basics: how to get to the trailhead, how far the hike is, information about hike difficulty, when to go, what they are going to see along the way, and where they are within reason at any given moment of the hike. This book covers those essentials, yet differentiates itself from other hiking guides by emphasizing trailside history.

Lets face it: In our rush-rush electronic world, we are hurriedly looking for an authority, someone who knows to help us pursue our goal of hiking through Virginias history. This is my approach: Imagine you and I relaxing around a campfire, and you ask about the best historic hikes in Virginia. I tell you as one friend would to another, in story fashion, rather than reading, like a dry, dull textbook. Virginias history is too captivating for that! This guide conveys concise, organized information to help busy people make the most of their limited and precious outdoor recreation time, and provides an opportunity to experience the mosaic of history that can be had in the Old Dominion.

While contemplating the historical hikes in this guide, RichmondVirginias capital citycomes to mind first. Not only does Belle Isle, with its physical representations of the past, stand out, but the nearby downtown Canal Walk provides insight into early Richmond, waterpower, and how times have changed. The Floodwall/Slave Trail took me to a darker era, when men traded for other men, human chattel brought to riverside docks. Just north of town, Cold Harbor Battlefields Bloody Run ran red with men who gave their lives fighting to end slavery.

Richmond pulses with the Old Dominions past, yet many other historic hiking locales are scattered throughout the state. Occoneechee Plantation State Park recalls the Old South and lifeways of the Virginia planter. More modest homestead reflections can be found hiking to the Johnson Farm, a preserved homestead high atop the Blue Ridge, among the Peaks of Otter, where generations of highlanders found homes amid mountain majesty. Of course, aboriginal Virginians had already discovered that life in the Blue Ridge was nothing if not beautiful. The Hensley Settlement, straddling the Virginia-Kentucky border, contains an entire community of homes and other farm buildings, even a school, providing a snapshot of rural life in the early 1900s.

Stuarts Knob, at Fairy Stone State Park, unveils layers of early industry, from iron-ore seekers digging with a pick and shovel in the 1700s to shaft mining around which a company town quickly rose and fell with the iron market. The Virginia Highlandsthe Old Dominions rooftopalso holds layers of time, from the long hunters who hounded bear in primeval spruce-fir forests, to the day of the loggers, to the homesteaders who tried to live in the harsh uplands, to the cattle grazers that followed, to todays Appalachian Trail hikers that clamber through mile-high meadows and forests.