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.

#28 ~ Hidden Valley

Hidden Valley Homestead where Archeological Digs Continue

The Entrance

The Old Someplace and a Fw More More Pictures of It from Different Angles

Front Steps

Here the rain is moving in.

This is the kitchen house which was built later on. The original one burned.

It is now 2 accommodations - one upstairs and un downstairs. The bottom one has a kitchen and both have living rooms and fireplaces. This is where I would want to stay. 

Not in the house. This is way more cozy and comfy. 

As we were leaving the owners returned and the wife took me through this building.

There is a covered walkway from this building to the main house,

Steps to Entrance

  

Vintage Door Knocker...I bet it is the original.

All the fences are wood.

 

Original Springhouse

The Spring House Water Supply

Here is the pipe where the water comes in.

I have to believe that they have a well and pump now, 
because this is really rusted.

Another Pipe

Rear of Spring House

II have no clue what this container if for. 
The owners of the B and B were not there when 

we were walking all around the property so I could
not ask them my wealth of questions.

Old Living Quarters 

More Old Living Quarters

 A BIG Goat

Family of Goats Plus a Few Chickens for Fresh Eggs

This has been an archeological site for years and years and is now governed by the National Forest Service. I do remember hearing that the digs have produced prehistoric remains. The home is now under private ownership and is used as a beautiful B and B where they take pristine care of their historical treasure. The wife raises the goats and there are bunches of them. The following is all I could find on the internet, but we are going to go back to talk at length to the owners so I acn update the history of the home, the property, and the area.

this post is linked with:
Good Fences on Thursdays
Saturdays Critters
Camera -Critters
Scenic Sundays   (I cannot get this one to link up. I get to it and then the IP address turns to               some odd thing that is “for sale.”I do not know how to do it this week.)


Pictures taken with my iPhone 5C in late November 2015

Wiki:

Hidden Valley, also known as Warwickton, is a historic home located near Bacova, Bath County, Virginia. It was built in 1858, and is a two-story, five-bay, brick structure with a hipped roof in a Greek Revival / Late Victorian style. It has a rear ell. The front facade features a pedimented tetra-style portico with Ionic order columns, placed over the central three bays of the five-bay facade. The entranceway is styled after a design on Plate 28 in Asher Benjamin's stylebook, The Practical Carpenter (1835).^[3]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.^[1]

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
2. Jump up^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved2013-05-12.
3. Jump up^ Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff (October 1969). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Hidden Valley" (PDF). and Accompanying photo

#7 ~ Remains of Miller’s Mill

“You too proceed!

make falling arts

your care,

Erect new wonders,

and the old repair.”

~Aleander Pope

Miller’s Mill 

Route 60 ~ 12 Miles West of Lexington, VA

Photographs from Rockbridge County, Vintage Trails

This is the way the mill originally looked. There are no date plaques on the property so I do not know when it was actually built. 

This is the way it looked when I first moved to the county.

Today, this is all that is left.

For close to 40 years, Buddy and I have passed this old mill going back and forth to town. The property is owned by the family of some of our friends out here on the creek. We have watched it fall into disrepair, and then finally,  what was left  was pushed to the ground for safety reasons. Now, there 

is a big pile of wood off to the side , but that magnificent old wheel still stands in all of its glory reminding of our past here in beautiful, rural Rockbridge County, VA. It broke our hearts that the family did not choose to restore it. We assume that financially it was simply out of the question. Buddy and I just hate to see these wonderful pieces of history disappear for once they are gone, they’re gone forever.

These pictures were taken with my Canon EOSDigital Rebel XSI.

Train Tracks Turned Pedestrian Brigde

 This is where the old train track came into the Lexington station. We live 12 miles out in the country from this point.

Here’s a closer view of what it is now...a student pedestrian walk from the main campus over to the Lynfest Center.

The area underneath the walkway is used for student parking.

At this point you can now see the walkway entering the new Lynfest Center for the Art here.

Lenfest Center for the Arts

Music, Dance, and Art

This is the entry to the center, and it sits on the land where the old Lexington train station once sat. When the university purchased the land, they did not destroy the train station. Rather, they moved it to the left and across the street, and it is now another one of W and L’s beautiful old buildings. All new Washington and Lee structures are built in the same period style. Robert E Lee and members of his family as well as his horse are buried on this campus. Stonewall Jackson Jackson and member of his family are buried here in The Stonewall Jackson Cemetery. Just think...one day my ashes will sit just across the way from him!

This is the original station totally refurbished.

Close up of the entrance to the building.

This is the left half  of the building, and right side is a duplicate.

Here you see the reflection of my trusty little car in the big window.

The old Lexington Train Station now houses the national headquarters of the Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society for college students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni. 


SOOC

This post is linked to Louis LaVache’s Sunday Bridges.

Daily Photo ~ Signs, Signs ~ 6-22-11

"

Of all the visits I have made to Still Pond to visit my daughter, it wasn’t until this last time that I noticed this most interesting historical marker. I was really taken aback by it, and decided to take a picture to share with the rest of you. These women were ahead of their time so here is hats off to Mary Jane, Anne, and Lillie for casting those first votes for the rest of us back in 1908.

"Why is a woman to be treated differently? Woman suffrage will succeed, 

despite this miserable guerilla opposition.”

 ~ Victoria Woodhull

"In 1872, Victoria Woodhullbegan her campaign for President. Her running mate was abolitionist, former slave and intellectual Frederick Douglass.    At that time, women weren’t even allowed to vote yet, she was running for president.”


This post is linked to Lesley’s Signs, Signs.