Valley Battlefields Foundation Buys Cross Keys property
Jan. '02 issue

GOODS MILL, Va. - Building on the efforts of Rockingham County residents and other battlefield preservation groups, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation (SVBF) recently acquired its first property in Rockingham on the Civil War battlefield at Cross Keys.

The SVBF purchased a 8.06-acre property on Goods Mill Road near the village of Goods Mill from Janet and Earl Downs. Under the purchase agreement, the couple will retain a life estate on the property, allowing them to continue to live in the home. The purchase price was $140,00.

SVBF Executive Director Howard Kittell said that while the property is not large, it builds on and overlooks about 190 acres of battlefield land protected in previous preservation efforts. These include about 100 acres owned by the Lee Jackson Foundation, which began purchasing land in the Victory Hill area at Cross Keys in 1958.

In 1994, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation acquired a conservation easement to protect about 40 acres next door to the Lee Jackson land. Then in 2000, the Civil War Preservation Trust teamed up with Port Republic residents Irvin and Nancy Hess to protect another 50 adjacent acres under easement. Together with the new acquisition by the Battlefields Foundation, almost 200 acres of land in the heart of the Cross Keys battlefield is permanently protected from intensive development.

"Acquisition of this property increases the amount of protected land at Cross Keys," Kittell said, "but perhaps more importantly, it provides an opportunity for the foundation to open the battlefield to the pubic for interpretation."

The Downs property sits astride a hill overlooking the previously protected area, offering an excellent vantage point to visitors seeking to understand the Battle of Cross Keys, which occurred on June 8, 1862. From the property, visitors look across an area called Trimble's Ravine into Victory Hill. Confederates firing from Victory Hill decimated Union troops in the ravine, laying the groundwork for a southern victory.

As part of an ongoing battlefield planning process for Cross Keys and the adjacent Port Republic battlefields, the foundation intends to decide how to develop a parking area, trail and interpretive displays on the new property. SVBF and Rockingham County are working with some 25 landowners and residents of the battlefield to determine how much land should be protected there over the long term and how best to interpret the battle without intruding on residents' privacy and agricultural operations.

Kittell said the future of the county's two nationally significant battlefields could be determined in the next five to 10 years. They are located on the edge of new development moving southeast from Harrisonburg and north from Grottoes and Waynesboro.

Because most of their land is still in productive farming operations, the battlefields retain much of the rural character they had at the time of the war. Kittell notes that with all the changes facing agriculture today, from thin profit margins to high land prices and low rainfall, area residents cannot assume the area will maintain its historic appeal and integrity.

SVBF is working to protect 10 battlefields in the eight-county Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District. A management plan completed last year calls for extensive public involvement in efforts to preserve, interpret and promote the battlefields, other Civil War sites, and related natural and cultural resources of the Valley.

Funding for the National Historic District comes from annual congressional appropriations to the Battlefields Foundation. The foundation has been championed by Congressmen Frank Wolf and Bob Goodlatte in the House of Representatives and by Senators John Warner and George Allen in the Senate. Because of their efforts on behalf of the Valley, this year the foundation will receive $1.2 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for battlefield preservation and $500,000 for interpretation, marketing and funding assistance to partnering organizations.

Kittell said the funds are earmarked to the foundation through the U.S. Department of Interior, which also provides technical expertise and support to the private non-profit group.