Anchor Ron Allen and a crew from NBC Nightly News journeyed to Richmond this summer to meet the family, volunteers, and staff who are leading the effort to restore historic Evergreen Cemetery. Among those interviewed are Liza Mickens, great-great granddaughter of Maggie L. Walker, who emerged in the late 1800s as a leading figure in the rebuilding of Richmond after the Civil War. Describing the site, Mickens said, “I think that it truly is a treasure to Richmond, but also to the nation.”
The beach stretches for three-quarters of a mile along the Chesapeake Bay.
“Excellent Salt Water Bathing!” “Ease of Access! “Every Conceivable Form of Moral Amusement!” The early 20-century ads from the Newport News Daily Press and the Richmond Times-Dispatch encouraging residents to “Spend Your Vacation at Buckroe Beach!” are quaint reminders that this stretch of Chesapeake Bay beachfront has been open to the public for generations.
But the ads only tell part of the story. Set aside by the earliest English colonists in 1619 for public use, by 1637 the site had become a commercial tobacco plantation, by the 1800s a fishing camp, and finally—around the time of the ads—a segregated resort and amusement park that would integrate after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Until then, the popular black resort, Bay Shore Beach, was just up the beach and separated by a fence.
Beachgoers circa 1970.
Over the next decade, usage of the beach by both blacks and whites declined, and the opening of Busch Gardens in 1975 presented the beach with competition for people’s leisure time. Sand dredging in 1990 to replenish the shoreline necessitated closings of the beach for the next three years to sweep for shells fired from Fort Monroe during WWII training exercises. While there were no explosions on the beach, the sweeps with metal detectors found more than 100 shells or casings.
Today, Buckroe Beach is “Hampton’s best kept secret,” says Kay Sumner, deputy director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “Based on the number of people who enjoy it, though, it’s not such a secret.”
Groovin’ by the Bay, 2019.
Five thousand people attend “Grooving by the Bay” alone, Sumner adds. The music festival takes place every Sunday evening of the beach season, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and features area bands playing R&B, funk, jazz, beach music, and more.
The city decided to protect the 28-acre site as permanent public open space by donating an easement on it to VOF in 2010. The beach is free to the public and extends three-quarters of a mile, with a one-half mile cement boardwalk and views of the Atlantic Ocean through the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
For $8.00, visitors can access Buckroe Beach Pier, which is equipped with a bait shop, snack bar, and restrooms, and offers anglers the possibility of nabbing spot, croaker, and perhaps the area’s most sought-after catch, the cobia—a fish that can reach to up to 100 pounds.
Official fishing season begins in April and ends in October, and potential anglers don’t need a license to fish off the pier.
Other amenities include lifeguards from May to September, a children’s playground and food trucks, and kayak, umbrella, and beach chair rentals. There’s even a farmers’ market on Saturdays. After September, the beach is still open for a stroll with oceanside views.
Improvements to the site are always being made. “We really try to meet citizens’ requests,” Sumner says.
Or, as the old ad in the Richmond Times-Dispatch put it: “Buckroe Beach Is BETTER This Year Than EVER Before!”
Ellen Pons, niece of VOF's first easement donor, with representatives from VOF, DHR, University of Richmond, Capital Region Land Conservancy, and Goochland County
In 1968, James Ball, Jr. became the first landowner to protect his land with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation when he donated an open-space easement on 100 acres in Goochland County before gifting the land to the University of Richmond for use as an outdoor classroom.
Five decades later, his niece, Ellen Pons, who owns the adjacent Clover Hill Farm, commemorated her uncle’s pioneering effort by getting an historical highway marker placed on the easement from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR).
James Ball, Jr., entertaining Ellen and her cousins at the farm in 1959.
In August Ms. Pons joined representatives from VOF, DHR, the University of Richmond, the Capital Region Land Conservancy, Goochland County, and dozens of family, friends, and neighbors at the sign’s unveiling along Sheppard Town Road. She shared family photos and memories of spending time with her uncle and cousins on the farm as a child, and expressed her happiness knowing that the property would continue to be enjoyed by future generations for education.
VOF’s assistant director of stewardship for the region, Brad Baskette, thanked Ms. Pons and guests for honoring Mr. Ball’s gift to the Commonwealth, and shared quotes from state officials who had worked with Mr. Ball, including Senator Fitzgerald Bemiss, who chaired the commission that recommended VOF’s creation in 1966.
“The Commission is aware that you were the original pioneer of this idea,” Sen. Bemiss wrote in a letter to Ball. “It took someone who was both generous and capable of taking the long view to make this move and to set an example which others will increasingly understand and want to follow. All of us on the Commission want to express our gratitude and respect for this great contribution, not only to our immediate area, but to the whole state.”
Preserve Technician Summers Cleary showing off our new kiosk signage
Last week, VOF staff at the Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve installed new kiosk signage at the South Section’s public trailhead. The installation of this new signage marks the beginning of a larger long-term project to install interpretive signage throughout the preserve. Though still in the research and development phase, these signs should be a critical improvement to maximize the preserve’s educational potential. One of our largest struggles will be aggregating and distilling information on our cultural/historical holdings. So, if you know anything relating to our historical resources, please get in touch with our preserve manager Joe Villari (jvillari@vofonline.org) or our preserve technician Summer Cleary (scleary@vofonline.org).
We hope that our new kiosk better highlights the breadth and depth of the work that we do here on the preserve. Many of our visitors do not realize that the preserve extends far beyond the South Section and its hiking trails. We have two other sections that do not permit open public visitation, but do host a plethora of educational programs and scientific activities.
This installation is to be closely followed by improvements to our South Section’s trail system that will make it easier to navigate and traverse. If anyone is interested in being a part of the upcoming trail re-blazing project, please email Summers Cleary, as we will be having a work day this Autumn to completely overhaul the current marking system and ensure that the trails are clearly and consistently marked.
As a reminder, our South Section is open to public hiking Fridays-Sundays, year-round. The address for our trailhead is 17502 Beverley Mill Drive, Broad Run, VA 20137. Happy hiking, and hope to see you on the trails.
Donald Thayer was just 18 when his father passed away, leaving him in charge of their Washington County farm. His father also left him with a deep sense of stewardship. “He told my mom that he wanted to keep the farm in one piece,” Thayer says. “From then on I was always looking for a way to conserve it.”
Soft-spoken, dedicated to the farm, and a strong advocate for conserving agricultural land, Thayer was one of the first open-space easement donors in Southwest Virginia, and the first in Washington County.
Morning on the farm.
In many ways, Thayer took a leap of faith, both in donating his easement and in speaking about it in the community. “Back when we used to have meetings with landowners to introduce them to the idea of easements, he stood out to us,” says Bill Wasserman, VOF’s stewardship assistant in the region. “Not only because he was the first to get behind the idea, but especially because, as someone who had already donated an easement, he spoke so eloquently about the importance of preserving farmland.”
Since Thayer’s 172-acre easement donation in 2000, VOF has helped conserve nearly 5,000 acres of land in Washington County. Thayer is modest about the role he has played. “I’ve encouraged neighbors when the opportunity came up,” he says. But both Wasserman and VOF easement manager Neal Kilgore agree that Thayer’s support of the program and credibility in the community have been a critical factor in the region’s success.
The Thayers use rotational grazing to reduce soil erosion.
“It is always refreshing and inspiring for me to meet farming families that quietly ‘walk the walk’ while the fruits of their labor ‘talk the talk,’” Kilgore says. “The Thayers epitomize that combination of quiet leadership, hard work, and a sound land ethic–all of which earn them a lot of respect in the community.”
Now 84, Thayer is in his 30th year as minister at the area’s United Methodist Church, and he still actively farms with his son, Kevin. They grow hay and manage an average of 85 Angus cows and calves. “We’re enrolled in the EQIP program for rotational grazing, and people are always surprised when I tell them how well it works for us,” says Kevin, who is also president of the Washington County Farm Bureau Board and a member, along with his father, of the Smyth/Washington Cattleman’s Association and the Abingdon Feeder Cattle Association. “If you do it right, those cattle will just follow you to the next grazing area.”
The Thayers manage a herd of 85 Angus cattle.
Kevin teaches agricultural education at Patrick Henry High School and estimates that he’s had about 100 students out to the farm to work during his 28 years there. “I enjoy helping them take a hands-on approach to solving everyday problems. There are always different challenges for some of the same tasks. To me, agricultural work gives you the skills to be successful in anything.”
In 1996, the Thayer farm was designated a Virginia Century Farm by the Virginia Department of Consumer and Agricultural Services. “Nothing like a beautiful sunrise on the farm that the family has worked and resided on for over 100 years,” Kevin says.
Donald points out how much the farm has been a family affair. “My older sister, Ellaree, helped me milk and rake hay for many years. My wife, Eleanor, has given me support and run many a farm errand over our 56 years of marriage.”
“I’m pleased with the decision,” Donald says of donating the easement nearly 20 years ago. “Even if it eventually goes out of the family, it will still be farmland. That’s the most important thing.”
Preserve Manager Joe Villari stands with Byron Carmean and our co-State Champion poison sumac tree
‘Big Tree Hunters’, Byron Carmean and Gary Williamson, ventured up to spend some time with VOF and DCR-DNH staff last week. While visiting our Preserve, they were able to find and record a new co-State Champion poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) tree!
As Gary Williamson noted, poison sumac inhabits wetland bogs and is a very uncommon tree in Virginia. The poison sumac is a woody shrub or tree, growing roughly from 5 to 20ft. It has compound leaves that have the characteristic smooth, reddish stalk making it easily identifiable from other sumac varieties. It has generally 7 to 13 smooth-edged, oblong leaflets that are opposite from each other. Its berries hang in loose clusters, green in spring and summer and turning white as fall and winter arrive. The leaves turn a vibrant red in winter. These trees are related to the more commonly seen poison ivies and poison oaks, and cause the same outbreak associated with poison ivy and oak from the rash-causing agent, urushiol.
With a diameter-at-breast-height at about 18in and roughly 30ft tall, we are thrilled that we can claim that we are protecting one of the state’s largest examples! This may sound like a small tree for being a state champion, but poison sumac trees don’t usually get much taller than this! This specimen is not the lone poison sumac in the preserve, and quite a bit of measuring had to be done to find our biggest tree of this species. Our efforts at the preserve are first and foremost to protecting the native biodiversity of Virginia and being able to provide and manage suitable habitat for large, healthy, uncommon trees is a great benefit.
VOF easement on the James River in Fluvanna County.
The Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) and the James River Association (JRA) have announced a new grant program to establish more than 900 acres of “riparian forested buffers” in the Middle James River watershed, using $2.2 million from the Virginia Environmental Endowment’s (VEE) James River Water Quality Improvement Program.
Riparian forested buffers, or forested streambanks, are the trees, shrubs, grasses, and other vegetation that grow alongside our local waterways. Along with providing valuable habitat for wildlife, these streamside forests are one of the most cost effective mechanisms for capturing pollution from the land and improving the water quality of a river like the James.
The James River Buffer Program will cover 100% of the total project costs including design, site preparation as needed, materials, and installation. Staff will also provide 3 years of help and assistance to evaluate needs and perform buffer maintenance as needed to establish a healthy streamside forest.
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation will assist the program through outreach to easement owners in the region. Easement owners interested in applying for funding should reach out to stewardship specialist Alex Smith in the Richmond office, who can help to determine eligibility.
Efforts to restore one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious historic African American cemeteries have received a significant boost with a grant from a leading national historic preservation organization.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced a $75,000 grant for Richmond’s Historic Evergreen Cemetery through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in July to help launch the site’s first phase of restoration, slated to begin later this year. The grant came on the heels of Evergreen being designated as “a site of memory associated with the Slave Route Project” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in June. Earlier this year, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation finalized an open-space easement and $400,000 grant for the project, which served as the impetus for the current restoration efforts.
Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund, underscored the importance of Evergreen and the 21 other projects receiving awards, noting that “the recipients of this funding shine a light on once lived stories and Black culture, some familiar and some yet untold, that weave together the complex story of American history in the United States.”
Enrichmond Foundation, the owner of Evergreen, was one of 462 applicants nationwide which sought Action Fund grants this year.
In his letter to Enrichmond, National Trust CEO & President Paul W. Edmondson wrote that Enrichmond’s community-based approach to preserving and restoring Evergreen “is extraordinary,” adding, “The work your organization is doing to tell the full American story is energizing and inspiring.”
“Through its Action Fund, the National Trust is helping our nation to reimagine the relationship between places, their power, and historical memory,” said Enrichmond Executive Director John Sydnor. “We are honored to be playing a role in this national reimagination through our community-driven efforts at Evergreen,” he added.
The restoration of Evergreen is driven by a 25-member advisory team, a group that includes former state Secretary of Administration Viola O. Baskerville, Dr. Johnny Mickens III, great-grandson of Maggie L. Walker, and John Mitchell, great-great nephew of newspaper editor and civil rights leader John Mitchell, Jr.
Baskerville, who also serves on the Virginia Outdoors Foundation’s Board of Trustees, said, “This award recognizes the importance of including community-based grassroots input in any effort to preserve historic resources, especially African American resources. It also affirms the decades-long volunteer support and places the community restoration efforts of this unique property on a clear path towards accomplishment. Historic Evergreen Cemetery is a national and international treasure that will see an unbelievable revitalization.”
Richard’s Fruit Market in Frederick County sells more than just fruit. “We can grow your whole meal,” owner and operator Eddie Richard says, “even down to the flowers for the table.”
And it’s more than just a market. The farm is open to the public for events throughout the year. There is a peach festival in August, an apple festival in October, and open houses year-round. “People can come with their families, have a picnic, and chill out on the farm,” Eddie says. “We grill hamburgers from our beef and grill pizzas with toppings we grow right here.” There’s even a petting zoo.
Three generations on the farm — Cameron, Eddie, Kayla, and Mary.
Providing people with good food and a chance to hang out on the farm is part of a larger desire to spread the word about farming, one that Eddie shares with his daughter, Kayla, who has helped him run things since September 2015.
“There are less and less people who know about agriculture these days,” Kayla says. “The best part of being open to the public is being able to teach about what we do. It’s second nature to us.”
Eddie agrees. “We get loads of questions about growing things.” In order to answer them, Eddie meets people at the market and takes them on a walking tour of the farm, which includes 60 acres that were placed under easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in 2018. “We talk about the whole process, from beginning to harvest,” he says. “I answer questions about how I do things, stabilizing the plants, choosing varieties, sharing knowledge so they can start their own gardens on the right foot.”
Kayla with a guest on the farm.
While much has changed since Eddie’s parents started the original market in a wagon at the end of their driveway in 1953, Eddie is determined to stay true to his parents’ vision. His mom, Mary, still helps run the market, in the same building she and her husband built after their little farm stand took off. Eddie’s son, Cameron, also helps out, and Kayla’s 8-month-old daughter will be the sixth generation of the family to grow up on the farm.
“My mom and dad started the market the year they got married,” Eddie says. “Of course, in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s it cost less to grow, there were fewer diseases, and fewer insects. You could make good money just growing apples and peaches. A lot has changed, but our passion hasn’t.” To find out about everything that is happening at Richard’s Fruit Market, go to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/RichardsFruitMarket/events/
Preserve staff and Archaeology Society of Virginia members after a successful Public Archaeology Days
Archaeologist Patrick O’Neill led VOF-BRMNAP staff, Archeological Society of Virginia members, and VOF-BRMNAP volunteers in the charge to clear and map two historic cemeteries on the Preserve this weekend during our Public Archaeology Days event. The group cleared vegetation, surveyed and mapped each stone thought to be potential grave markers in each cemetery, and made some amazing discoveries – like the exposed top of a headstone found to have engraved words, and plotting over 50 potential graves in one of the cemeteries!
This project is just one part of a larger effort made by preserve staff and our team of volunteers and partnering agencies to discover the cultural history of the preserve and weave together a cultural narrative of the peopled past of the Bull Run Mountains. This has helped us discover one more piece of the history of the preserve, who has historically called this slice of the mountain home, and clues into the nature of their everyday mountain life. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – This is just phase one of our cemetery mapping on the preserve. If you hike on the green trail you may notice pin flags scattered across the woods just next to the trail. Pardon our flagging: these flags are in place to mark potential graves and will remain in the woods for a little while longer until phase 2 begins: checking the efficacy of our mapping when there is less vegetation to obstruct view of the stones. Check in with preserve staff for updates on this project, and the progress of mapping and learning the overall cultural history of Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve.
Patrick O'Neil orchestrates survey work in the cemetery
