Virginia Interesting Places to Visit

The Virginia Transportation Museum - In the 19th century the city of Roanoke was the headquarters of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company. The railroad section of the museum has everything from antique passenger cars and engines to the computer run miniature HO scale model "Alleghany Western". On the fourth weekend of each month visitors can ride steamers on the park's narrow-gauge railway. Among the antique cars on display are the slate-blue Wabash 1009 passenger car, the Chesapeake and Ohio's steam engine No. 1964, several freight and tank cars of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company, and a group of brightly colored railroad maintenance wagons. Other displays include machines such as a 1938 Cadillac fire truck, and a 1957 Studebaker Commander. One can also see a Canadian dogsled, an 1870 surrey, stock racing cars and on special occasions the Budweiser Clydesdale horses. Rounding it all off there are displays of planes and helicopters and towering above the entire exhibition is a black and white Jupiter rocket.

Red Hill Shrine - is located in Brookneal. One of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. and a five-term governor of Virginia Patrick Henry bought Red Hill Plantation in 1794. He retired there and continued to practice law. The plantation has now been restored and is a complex of several buildings, including the main house, a two-story structure which was rebuilt on its old foundations, the kitchen, the carriage house, where a carriage dated from 1800 is on display and the office where Patrick Henry practiced law. On the plantation there is an Osage orange tree with a 90-foot spread and a height of 54 feet. It is said to be the largest and oldest Osage orange in the country. The American Forestry Hall of Fame lists it as both the Virginia champion and national champion of its kind. The visitor's center has a collection of Patrick Henry memorabilia on display including his flute, cuff-links, salt dishes, an ivory letter opener, wine glasses and his house keys. A printed guide to a walking trail is available.

Culpeper Calvary Museum - At various times during the Civil War both the Union and Confederate forces occupied the town on Culpeper. It was the site of some of the fiercest fighting. In 1861 the Battle of Brandy Station, with 19,000 mounted men, took place five miles from town. It remains the biggest cavalry encounter ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. The museum was founded in 1977 and commemorates that battle and documents the town's involvement in the war. Much of the museum's collection of bayonets, sabers, knapsacks, stirrups, firearms and other items of warfare was found on the battlefields in the countryside surrounding Culpeper. Paintings, hundred-year-old maps and many photographs decorate the museum's walls. One can also see a slide show of the Battle of Brandy Station and Culpeper's role in the Civil War.

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum - The building in Richmond is known as the Old Stone House and dates back to the 1730s. It is one of five houses devoted to the memorabilia of the life and times of Edgar Allan Poe. Behind the stone house is an Enchanted Garden inspired by two of Poe's poems - "One in Paradise" and "To Helen". The garden is planted with evergreens, rhododendrons, and ivy-bordered lawns with wrought iron benches. The museum's most elaborate display is a large painted clay model of Richmond as it was in the first half of the 19th century. Museum guides point out the places where Poe lived and worked. One can also see Poe's walking stick, a pair of boot hooks and his wife's trinket box and mirror. The collection also contains a number of photographs and drawings of Poe and his circle of friends and includes a strange, ethereal sketch of his wife Virginia. Facsimiles of the first editions of his works and of his manuscripts include a handwritten draft of his famous poem "Annabel Lee". Also on display in an upper room are the series of surrealist illustrations made in the 1880s by James Carling for "The Raven".

Chippokes Plantation State Park - located east of Surrey. Captain William Powell of Jamestown was granted 1,400 acres on the James River in 1632. This tract of land was within Indian Territory. Powell named it Chippokes in honor of Chief Choupouke, an Indian who had befriended the settlers. For more than 350 years Chippokes has been a working farm. Originally corn and other grains, tobacco and apple trees were grown here, but in the 19th century peanuts became the principal crop. Dairy farming was introduced by the last owners Mr. and Mrs. Victor Stewart. The plantation was given to the state of Virginia in 1967. Today the farm produces corn, peanuts, soybeans, rye barley and beef cattle. Exhibitions of antique farm equipment on the grounds and displays at the visitor center tell the story of farming here. Of the main buildings - rows of slaves' quarters. several; barns. a large old river house - only the brick kitchen, built in the 19th century and the mansion are open to the public. The brick house was constructed in 1854 and has semi-formal gardens with flowering trees, magnolias, holly, boxwood and crape myrtle. The house itself is elegantly furnished n traditional colonial style. Both walking and hiking trails wind through the farmland and meadows. There is a picnic area which sits on a bluff overlooking the James River.

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge - can be found in Suffolk. The heavily forested lands and extensive waterways of the refuge, a quiet, tranquil landscape of some 112,000 acres spill over from Virginia into North Carolina. The refuge provides habitats for black bears, bobcats, otters, white-tailed deer and hundreds of bird species. Two unusual natives here, the Dismal Swamp log fern and the Dismal Swamp short-tailed shrew are found almost nowhere else. Lake Drummond at 3,100 acres and the largest natural lake in Virginia is located in the heart of the swamp. It is fed by many creeks whose mirror like black waters are colored and purified by tannic acid from the bark of various trees in the area. Remnants of a great cypress forest can be seen in the many "knees" encircling the lake. To enter the swamp by water you can launch your boat at the public ramp on U.S. Route 17 at Dismal Swamp Canal which leads to Feeder Ditch. At the Feeder Ditch Spillway boats are carried by tram to the other side where the creek continues its course to the lake. An interpretive boardwalk trail through the wilderness starts just beyond the parking lot at the entrance to Washington Ditch Road. The ditch was named for the first U.S. president who surveyed the area in 1768.