Managing Editor:
James Perry

By Deane Winegar

The area of Nelson County that surrounds the 2000 location for Camp Jeep is perhaps best known for its outstanding scenery and for its allure to the golfer, skier, hiker, biker, tennis player, and resort-goer.

However, there is also plenty to interest those who enjoy discovering the history of a place, poking around antique shops, browsing in craft shops or art galleries, or tasting the wares of local wineries.

In Search of History

As you drive through the rolling, pastoral landscape around Oak Ridge Estates and up the forested mountainsides around Wintergreen Resort, historic sites may be less noticeable than if you were at, say, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, or the battlefields of Northern Virginia. There, history is as evident as the figurehead on a ship. Here, however, it takes a bit of imagination and some knowledge of the area's past to appreciate how Nelson County has managed to retain its rural nature, while freeways, traffic lights, fast-food restaurants, pet salons, and department stores are blanketing the busier corridors of the state.

Geography is an important key. The very remoteness of the Rockfish and Tye river valleys have played a significant part in the area's development. English colonists came ashore at what is now Virginia Beach, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, in 1607. Because they had abundant seafood, forest, wildlife, and good soil, they had no need to expand their settlements into the wild, uncharted lands to the west for many years.

As the English began to colonize eastern Virginia, waves of Scots-Irish and German settlers were moving down the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge, beginning in the 1730s. It would be another 20 years, as the most desirable farmland on the western side of the mountains became occupied, before they begin spilling across the mountains into Nelson County by way of Rockfish Gap, where U.S. 250 and I-64 now cross the mountain range. 

These immigrants from the Valley called themselves "Cohees" and "New Virginians," say historians, while pioneers from the east became known as "Tuckahoes" or "Old Virginians." Some Virginians who live on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge in Nelson and southern Albemarle counties are said to have a Tuckahoe accent. The word also turns up in the names of restaurants, taverns, streets, and other places.

Wintergreen's Lake Monocan--A Name From the Past

At the time the colonists arrived, the Indian tribes of the Monocan Confederacy ruled the territory that is now Nelson County. The Monocans were fierce enemies of the Powhatan tribes to the east. The Powhatans warned Capt. John Smith to cease westward exploration at the falls of the James, where Richmond is now located, because of the Monocan villages located along the banks of the upper river.

Although little is known about the Monocan culture, these Indians were certainly skilled hunters who also did a bit of farming. Wild game was abundant at the time European settlers arrived, for Indians had lived lightly upon the land. However, the white-tailed deer and wild turkey that Camp Jeep participants may run across this August are the product of modern game management rather than a holdover from Indian times--early white settlers nearly wiped them out. Even good management has not restored the cougar, elk, and wolves that once roamed these woods. However, occasional, apparently reliable claims of cougar sightings in Nelson County farms and backyards or at Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks are the subject of much front porch speculation. There is nothing else that looks even remotely like this big tawny cat with the three-foot tail.

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Early Settlers

By the early 1700s, when settlers began making inroads into the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, the area that is now Nelson County was used mostly as hunting grounds for various factions of warring Indian tribes. Two adventurous scouts--John Findlay and Allen Tye--were among brave white explorers who dared to follow the trails into the wilderness. Findlay's Mountain near Oak Ridge Estates takes its name from the first explorer, who later was to guide Daniel Boone to Kentucky. Nelson County's Tye River was named for Allen Tye. 

The Scots-Irish and Germans, who came mostly from the west, built sturdy log cabins in the hills and mountains of Nelson County, some of which remain in use to this day. Many of the settlers from the east were tobacco planters; their crops were grown along the major waterways and traded to merchants, who would then send tobacco to England in exchange for goods from the Old World. (When slavery was legalized in Virginia in 1661, black slaves replaced indentured servants who had formerly labored on the riverfront plantations.)

Those who would like to learn more about Virginia's pioneering past will enjoy visiting the American Museum of Frontier Culture (540-332-7850) at Staunton, which is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Three authentic European farms (German, English, and Scots-Irish) have been transported to the museum so that visitors can understand the culture early settlers brought with them. Costumed interpreters reenact the daily life of Europeans before their immigration to America. The museum is located off I-81, exit 222 (near the I-81 interchange with I-64). Go west on U.S. 250 and take the first left after the light.

The James River and Kanawha Canal

So important was this trade in tobacco, as well as lumber, coal, iron and grains, that in the 1800s, a heroic attempt was made to connect the tidal water of the James River at Richmond with the Ohio River by way of a canal system, complete with locks to raise and lower boats and a towpath along the side for the horses that pulled the boats. 

Although the water connection was never completed, the canal system was for a time the only way colonists had to transport goods to and from the seacoast in the 160-mile stretch between Richmond and Buchanan. A set of restored locks of the James River and Kanawha Canal is open for public inspection at Otter Creek, where the Blue Ridge Parkway spans the river at Parkway mile 63.6. The original pine planking is still there, as is the excellent stonework of Irish and Italian stonemasons. Other remains and portions of the old canal can be seen at many locations along the James.

Oak Ridge Estates

The same James River comes within a very few miles of Oak Ridge Estates, which has its own fascinating history. Thomas Fortune Ryan lived in grand style at Oak Ridge during his retirement years in the early 1900s. He operated a horse racetrack, a fox hunt club, a game preserve, and a self-sustaining model farm. Participants at Camp Jeep can witness how the estate, with its mansion and nearly 5000 acres of woods and fields, is being restored to its former glory. 

Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive

Visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, which runs along the crest of the Virginia's Blue Ridge, are often amazed to learn the story of its construction. Granite and gneiss bedrock, steep, eroding mountainsides, and high winds and frigid temperatures on exposed ridges presented seemingly insurmountable obstacles for the hardy workers who built the highway. Construction of the 105 miles of the Skyline Drive took place between 1931 and 1939. The 469-mile Parkway was built over a 51-year span between 1936 and 1987.

On the Drive, much of the strong construction of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt's "Tree Army," the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), remains in use today. These 1,000 previously unemployed young men of the Depression Era built overlooks, guard walls, and log buildings, put in water and septic systems, cleared trails, created picnic areas and campgrounds, and landscaped the roadside. On the Parkway, the exquisite rock walls and bridges built by the skilled hands of Italian and Spanish stonemasons also remain.

More Adventures

Four wineries are within easy driving distance of the Jamboree. Wintergreen Winery and Vineyards (804-361-2519) is on Route 664, four miles east of Wintergreen Resort's Mountain Village. Mountain Cove Vineyards (804-263-5392) is located off Route 718 just north of Lovingston. Afton Mountain Vineyards (540-456-8667) is on Route 631, off Route 6 and Exit 99 of I-64 on the east side of Afton Mountain. Rebec Vineyards (804-946-5168) is on the west side of U.S. 29, 11 miles south of Lovingston.

Craft shops, art galleries, and antique shops are located at Nellysford and other places along Route 151 and on Route 664, which connects 151 to Wintergreen's Mountain Village. Two popular places include the Valley Green Gallery (804-361-9316) in the shopping strip at Nellysford, and Foxfire (804-361-2202) on Route 664. In addition, the Mountain Inn of Wintergreen Resort hosts gift shops, boutiques, clothing stores, and a gourmet shop with delectable coffees and fresh flowers. Golf and tennis apparel and spa sportswear and equipment is sold at pro shops at the golf and tennis complexes on both the mountain and valley sites.

For more information on this and other Jeep Jamborees, please visit http://www.jeepunpaved.com/jamboree/index.html.