Followers

Translate

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

February 16, 2016 ~ Vintage Treasure Finds at The Peaks of Otter




 This is an aerial view of The Peaks of Otter which is located in Bedford, Virginia taken from their site on the internet. The proper belongs to the National Forrest fur they lease out the lodge and dining room to a private company. We have gone up and stayed there a number of times because I love to walk around Lake Abbot and up to the Johnson Farm, and Bud treks up to Sharp Top Mt. I go up there via a school bus service. The last time we were there we did not stay in the main lodge but out to the left in the two story section. In the bathroom I got to witness a blast from the past....an original bottle opener on the back of the door and in the wall to the right of the sink was a slot where you would drop your used razor blades. I could not believe my eyes considering I had not seen one of the latter since I was a child. Hope the photos bring back some memories for those of you who are seniors.



BLOGGER has deleted my picture and will not let me put it back. There is just a yellow square.

Here is the information on the Peaks that I found in Wiki.  Buddy has hiked in to the area that I have highlighted in red. It is an interesting piece of WW!! history.
At milepost marker 86 of the Blue Ridge Parkway stands the Peaks of Otter. It’s known that Native Americans used the peaks often for travel and rest and European settlers started establishing the area in the mid-1700s. In 1766 Thomas Wood and his family from Pennsylvania settled a homestead on the area; National Park Service documents[1] indicate other early residents included brothers Charles and Robert Ewing, who are asserted by some to have named the Peaks after the Ewing surname as it is pronounced in Scottish Gaelic - Clann Eóghain na h-Oitrich, or "Clan Ewing of Otter."[2] This view may be given credence by similarly Otter-themed place names in Scotland, and the resemblance of Flat Top to Beinn Dorain in the ancestral Ewing area of Argyll and Bute.
In 1834 the first local inn was created by the children of the Wood family and opened to travelers. In the late 1800s the Peaks of Otter was home to over 20 families, a school, a church, and a hotel. By the early 1900s the Peaks of Otter became a popular local tourist spot and became especially noticed by the National Park Service. Abbott Lake, the lake at the base of the peaks, was man made and created in 1964 along with the official Peaks of Otter Lodge, which still stands today.[3][4]

The Peaks and Surrounding Areas and Activities[edit]

There are three main peaks; Flat Top, Sharp Top, and Harkening Hill in order from highest peak altitude to lowest peak altitude. Aside from Sharp Top there is a separate cliff formation on the other side of the peak called Buzzard’s Roost, at about the same elevation as the rest of Sharp Top. Combined within the three peaks is a little over 12 miles of hiking and extra attractions along the way.[5] On the outside of the valley, past the lodge, are the Peaks of Otter campgrounds, where there are trails, picnic tables, big open fields and outdoor grills. Johnson Farm is a historically restored site along one of the side trails towards Harkening Hill, it is a interactive, still functioning farm building from the early 1900s.[6] From atop the peaks the very close town of Bedford can be seen within eyesight. The township of Bedford actually claims the Peaks of Otter within its jurisdiction, due to its proximity to the peaks. On the summit of the far side of the main peak; Sharp Top, there is a famed crash site of a World War II B-25 bomber that crashed into the side of the mountain during a training exercise. The wreckage was never removed, as it is too heavy and the side of the mountain it crashed on is too steep to work on. There is a small memorial on a rock at the top of the site for the crew that died, it is a hike off trail, but the majority of the plane can still be found along the mountain with bigger parts further down as you go over an estimated area of 500x600 feet.[7][8] There is also a bigger, more put-together World War II Memorial in nearby Bedford. This memorial is a D-Day memorial dedicated to all men who died in the Normandy landings, but especially to the ones from Bedford, who had the highest percentage of men killed in the initial landings, the most out any other single area in the whole country.[9]

This post is linked with Tom’s Tuesday’s Treasures.

17 comments:

  1. Great history and I too had forgotten the razor blade disposal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs through one of nature's treasures, I'd love to return again. Thanks joining in this week and please return real soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful country and great informative post ~ thanks!

    Wishing you a happy week ~ ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  4. That razor blade disposal is quite the blast from the past!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That is a very interesting area. Thanks for the info also.
    Love your observations about the newly weds on my blog. LOL!
    MB

    ReplyDelete
  6. What beautiful scenery! That razor blade slot reminds me of the many old medicine cabinets that were built right into the bathroom walls and if you ever did a remodel of those bathrooms, you'd find a wall full of razor blades! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another place for me to go exploring.

    (I have one of those razor blade slots in the back of my medicine cabinet)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I was going to comment on the very same thing that Cranberry Morning had said. Upon removing the original medicine cabinet for a make-over in our first home I found all these old rusty razor blades. At the time I thought someone in the past was a slob but eventually learned it was a common practice back then. Has Buddy ever hiked down to the crash site? That is something I would want to see for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I never knew about the zazor blade disposal, that was interesting. The BRP is a beautiful area.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a beautiful place...I would love to see it for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello Genie
    A beautiful place, thanks for sharing.
    I wish you a nice day.
    Sadie

    ReplyDelete
  12. I never saw or kept in mind such a razor blade and the scenery of the BRP is a real treasure every time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. i love the hike to johnson farm, it's so pretty! we haven't stayed in the lodge...maybe one day!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I had forgotten about the razor blade disposal slots -- I do remember seeing them in motel rooms even after we were married (probably old rattletrap motels, all we could afford to stay in).

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lovely place, and I love the details.
    Hugs:)

    ReplyDelete