A Clarke County Scavenger Hunt.

-A Family Activity in the Mosby Heritage Area-

Clarke County is in the heart of the Mosby Heritage Area, and is one of Virginia’s most historic and scenic counties. This scavenger hunt is an exploration of Clarke, making a complete circle, and takes in a sampling of the best the county has to offer. It is meant to be a family outing, and takes most of a day to enjoy, depending upon your curiosity. It does not have to be done in one trip, although it is recommended so things fit together best. The tour has been cut in two after Stop 7 at Millwood.

How to do the Scavenger Hunt:

1. Talk your parents in to the idea. Choose a day to go exploring. You will need most of that day.

We suggest you bring a picnic. There are several good sites to have one, or, you can buy one.

2. You will need a working trip odometer on your car to track mileage between sites. Set it at 0.

3. Complete the tour, answering the questions as you go. You should visit the sites to answer them.

4. Send this completed scavenger hunt with your answers, honor pledge, and t-shirt size to:

Director of Education, Mosby Heritage Area Association

Post Office Box 1497

Middleburg, Virginia 20118

5. You may wish to look over the scavenger hunt before you go. If you have any questions, call the      Mosby Heritage Area at (540) 687-6681 Monday through Friday 9:00-5:00 p.m.

6. The Prize. We will send you a Mosby Heritage Area t-shirt. It is gray with dark red lettering—      “Got Mosby?” on the front, and “No . . . Mosby’s Got You” on the back with the Mosby logo.

The Mosby Heritage Area Association: Heritage areas help both visitors and residents recognize, appreciate, and help preserve a region’s precious heritage. Founded in 1995, this 1800 square-mile heritage area encompasses the counties of Clarke, Loudoun, Fauquier, Warren, and part of Prince William. The heritage area is named for the Confederate cavalry officer John S. Mosby due to his fame and the role he played in the region. With its scenic vistas, distinctive local architecture, handsome farms, intact historical villages and small towns, miles of narrow country roads and the world famous Blue Ridge and its foothills, it is reminiscent of rural England with an American twist. The Mosby Heritage Area is “hallowed ground” as well since so many soldiers form North and South fought and died here in the Civil War. The Mosby Heritage Area Association’s mission is to educate about and advocate for the preservation of the historic, cultural, and scenic resources in the region. Our heritage outreach education program is an aspect of that mission. To learn more about us, please visit our web site at www.mosbyheritagearea.org. Our public programs are listed there—please come.

COPYRIGHT 2006 by the MOSBY HERITAGE AREA ASSOCIATION. All rights reserved.

-Our warmest thanks to the Clarke County Historical Association for their advice and historical expertise-

The Scavenger Hunt:

1. BEGIN: Berryville—the Clarke County Historical Association and Courthouse Square. Located at 32 East Main Street, the Clarke County Historical Association is the county’s main museum and place to get information on Clarke and Berryville. It is open from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Park behind the building for your tour of Berryville. If the Historical Association is open, get what pamphlets or books you may want, view the several exhibits, then head out the front door.

Walk out to East Main Street and turn right, walking toward the stop light. At Church Street, turn right again, and walk to the Grace Episcopal Church at the end of the Street. From the church, you can look back over Courthouse Square, perhaps the prettiest and most historic view in Berryville. This 1857 church before you had just been rebuilt when the Civil War began. Confederate General Robert E. Lee went to a service here in June of 1863 on his way to Gettysburg, the biggest battle of the Civil War. There are interesting old stones in the graveyard which you may want to look at.

Question #1: Facing the church, on which side is the tower (steeple)?

Walk down the street a short ways to the Clarke County Courthouse on your left. General Lee would have seen this courthouse, since it was built in 1838. In front of the courthouse is a statue honoring Clarke County’s Confederate dead. Notice what it says on the front—this is what Confederates would have told you they were fighting for in the Civil War.

Question #2: How many gave their lives? ______

2. Josephine City. Walk back to the Clarke County Historical Association and get your car. Turn right out of the Historical Association parking lot on to East Main Street. Go to the first light (Church Street) and turn left. Church Street heading south goes through some of the most handsome historic houses in Berryville. Go 0.5 miles to Josephine Street on the left, turn there, go 0.5 miles again to the

Josephine School Community Museum at #303 on the right. Turn in here, look for the museum signs, and park. This 1882 school, now Clarke County’s African-American museum, was built as one of the first public schools in Clarke County, and was in the heart of Berryville’s African-American neighborhood known as Josephine City. Clarke County’s population was over half slave before the Civil War, so with freedom, black institutions began to thrive through freedmen fighting for them and by hard work. The museum tells some of those many stories. It is open from 1:00-3:00 Sundays.

Question #3: How many rooms did this schoolhouse have?

3. Green Hill Cemetery and the Wagon Train Raid site. Turn left out of the Josephine School parking lot back onto Josephine Street, returning to Church Street. Turn right onto Church Street, returning to East Main Street. Turn left at the light, go one block to the light at Buckmarsh Street (Route 340) and turn right. Go 0.5 miles to Green Hill Cemetery on the right. Take the second right into the cemetery (the main gate opposite Food Lion). Once in the cemetery, turn immediately right, then take the next left and head straight back over the crest of the hill. Past the lone tree on your left you will see two large white marble “obelisks” (pointed grave markers) right up against the road. Look for the third marker in this row. Green Hill Cemetery is the resting place of some of Berryville’s most famous sons and daughters. Notice the metal “C.S.A.” marker by this grave. What do you think it stands for? This man was a famous Confederate, guerilla chief John S. Mosby’s most famous scout, a man who knew the northern Shenandoah Valley better than anyone—who knew every road and path. When Mosby’s Rangers went on a raid anywhere in or around Clarke County, this man led them there. Yes, here lies a very real Mosby’s Ranger—John Russell.

Question #4: In what year did John Russell die?

After looking about the cemetery, you may exit by turning right on to Route 340. Go under Route 7, taking the first left-hand crossover. You may wish to pull in to Trappe Hill Road.

Just beyond where Route 7 crosses over 340 on the left hand side of the road was where Mosby’s Raiders attacked a long wagon train supplying Union General Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah. Sheridan’s army was moving into the Shenandoah Valley to take it away from the Confederacy before the harvest could be taken in to feed the Confederacy for another season. The cannon and cavalry attack came at dawn on Saturday morning August 13, 1864, when many of the wagoneers had pulled their wagons over to the creek you see on the left hand side of the road (Buck Marsh Creek) to let the horses and mules drink water. Some 75 wagons were burned, over 200 Union prisoners taken, and over 500 horses and mules captured, disrupting Sheridan’s supply line. It made Union cavalry general Wesley Merritt very angry; he and his men lost many of their personal things in the wagons. The fight spread all the way into downtown Berryville, according to Sam Moore, a boy who was there. This raid led to Union soldiers beginning to burn the farms of local people they thought were helping Mosby and his rangers. It was John Russell, whose grave you saw, that scouted for this “Berryville Wagon Train Raid.” Mosby promoted him to lieutenant for helping to set up this successful raid.

Question #5: What does the granite marker near this first crossover north of Route 7 say about the                         wagon train raid?

4. “Morgan’s Lane”. Return to Route 7 Bypass and head 2 miles east toward Leesburg. The first farm you see on Route 7 east on the right is part of Soldier’s Rest, a home of Revolutionary War General Daniel Morgan. He also lived at Saratoga, near Boyce. Just beyond where the stoplight for Business Route 7 joins the Route 7 Bypass east of Berryville, you will see Parshall Road, Route 608, on the right. Turn here and go 1.7 miles to Hill and Dale Farm on the right, known as the Benjamin Morgan Farm in 1864. Look for a small granite marker where the driveway comes to the road, this will tell you that you have found the place. Just pull off by the marker; the farm is private property. Here, during a thunderstorm on a Friday night, August 19, 1864, a week after the Berryville wagon train raid, Union soldiers arrived to burn their third Clarke County farmhouse in a row in retaliation for Mosby’s raid. Captain William Chapman and some of his raiders arrived just as the house was being set on fire.

Charging down, seeing women and children shivering in blankets in the rain as their house was set afire by the Yankees, Chapman screamed to his men, “Wipe them from the face of the earth! No quarter! No quarter! Take no prisoners!” When Mosby’s men were done, every Union soldier at the Morgan farm had been shot down, all killed but one. Though badly wounded, he survived to tell this grisly tale. The Civil War got very, very nasty here in Clarke County, and “Morgan’s Lane” is proof of that.

Question #6: What does the granite marker call the Union soldiers killed here?

5. Locke’s Landing and Mill. Continue on Parshall Road 1.4 miles to Locke’s Mill Road.

Turn right here and go 0.5 miles to Locke’s Landing. You can park here (on the right) and walk over to the Shenandoah River (on the left) for a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge mountains and the river which means “daughter of the stars” in the ancient Indian language.

Continuing on Locke’s Mill Road 0.4 miles, you will come on the left to a slumping old white house with a fence in front and just beyond, a barn right by the road. The house is the miller’s house for Locke’s Mill (what appears to be the barn) next door. Built about 1750, this sagging 250-year-old house is one of Clarke’s oldest. The old mill is not as old, as it has been rebuilt. Clarke County was known for its good land in the 1700s, grew much grain, and it needed mills like this one to grind that grain.

Question #7: Look for the remains of the mill wheel from the road. Where is it?

6. Old Chapel. Just beyond Locke’s Mill, bear right at the fork to stay on Locke’s Mill Road. Go another 1.5 miles until you come to Briggs Road. Turn right here, going one full mile to Bishop Meade Road (Route 255). Turn right here, and your next stop, Old Chapel, will appear just up the road on your left. Park. Old Chapel is one of the oldest Episcopal churches west of the Blue Ridge (it was built in 1793), but it replaces an even older chapel built in 1738 (in the first ten years of white settlement of the Shenandoah Valley) which gives the site its name. The graveyard behind the chapel is also very old, started by the Burwell family who owned Carter Hall Plantation at Millwood. There are many Confederate soldiers and many people from famous Clarke County families buried here (this was THE place to be buried in Clarke County.). Go around the chapel to the back, and you will see a door. Follow in a straight line back into the graveyard from that door, and under the second big spruce tree, you will come to the grave of Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney General of the United States, appointed by President George Washington. He served on Washington’s “cabinet” (his advisors) with Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Henry Knox. This was THE FIRST cabinet of the U.S.

Question #8: Being the first Attorney General of the United States is not on Edmund Randolph’s

Gravestone. What jobs he held are listed on the stone?

7. Carter Hall, Millwood and the Burwell-Morgan Mill. After exploring the cemetery, turn right on to Bishop Meade Road, Route 255 (now going the other way), and head toward the little village of Millwood, which is 2.5 miles. Coming into Millwood, you will see stately Carter Hall on the left where Nathaniel Burwell lived. It is now the home of Project Hope. Burwell lived at Carter’s Grove Plantation near Williamsburg before this which you may have visited (Colonial Williamsburg owns it). Some know Carter Hall because there’s a famous pipe tobacco named for it. It is not open to the public.

Bishop Meade Road ends at Millwood Road (Route 723). Turn left and almost immediately you will see the Burwell-Morgan Mill on your right. Pull in and park. The Burwell-Morgan Mill was a business jointly owned by Nathaniel Burwell and Revolutionary War General Daniel Morgan in the late 1700s. General Morgan’s house, “Saratoga”, is up Millwood Road (left out of the mill parking lot, 1.5 miles on the left, but you can’t see it from the road). You saw another farm of the General’s near Berryville—Soldier’s Rest. The ancient mill, built in 1782, can be visited from May through October from 10:00 to 5:00 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and noon to 5:00 on Sunday. You can see them grind grain on Saturdays. The mill is operated by the Clarke County Historical Association (remember, you started at their museum.). [Find out more about the mill at www.clarkehistory.org] . If the mill is closed, walk around; see if you can figure out how the mill works. Brookside, the miller’s house, is behind the mill. Locke’s Store across the street has excellent sandwiches, ice cream, and snacks.

Question #9: What is the mill race (feeds water to the mill) of the old Burwell-Morgan Mill built of?

Walk up the street (left out of the mill parking lot) and the second house on the left is known locally as the Clarke House, or “Clarke’s Hotel”. Here, on April 18 and again on April 20, 1865, more than a week after General Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox, Colonel John Mosby met with Union General Hancock to discuss surrendering Mosby’s Rangers. At the last moment on April 20^th, Mosby and his men “spooked”—they suspected a trap—and they did the famous Mosby “skedaddle”—they left every which way as fast as they could go. The next day, April 21, 1865, Mosby’s Rangers met in Salem (now called Marshall) over in Fauquier County and Mosby ordered them to “disband”—to just go home.

Question #10: What building is directly across the street from “Clarke’s Hotel”?

THIS IS A GOOD PLACE TO BREAK THE HUNT IN HALF SO AS TO COMPLETE IT ANOTHER DAY. TO RETURN, TURN LEFT (ROUTE 723), THEN RIGHT ON ROUTE 340 AT BOYCE .

8. Blandy Farm. Turn right from the mill, and at the fork just south of the mill turn right on to Route 255. Go 1 mile to Route 50. Turn right (west) on to Route 50. Go 1.1 miles and you will see the sign for Blandy Experimental Farm; just beyond in the median strip is a turning lane. Turn left in to Blandy Farm, crossing Route 50. It is ½ mile in to the parking lot for Blandy. This is the State Arboretum of Virginia—a tree garden on an historic plantation, and a gorgeous place to walk around. There is also a 3-mile loop drive. Your visit will be brief today if you want to complete the scavenger hunt, but you will surely want to come back. Walk over to the little gazebo at the right side of the parking lot, and take the path that goes from its side. This goes in to the offices, gift shop, library, and restrooms of Blandy. Just before you reach “Dogwood Lane” and before the archway, you will see a sign telling the history of these buildings. Read it, then (1) go through the arch and look at the slave quarters, (2) walk a little further in until you see the evergreen trees and step in to see the view, (3) use the restrooms, then (4) walk back out of the arch and turn left on to Dogwood Lane. Walk until you see the striking 1832 plantation house called Tuleyries—the slave quarters served this house. It is one of Clarke’s most handsome houses. Then walk back to the path on which you came in and return to your car. You can picnic just down the drive loop, they have tables.

Question #11: When you walk in through the arch, on which side are the 1820s/30s slave quarters?

9. Historic Long Branch. Return back out to Route 50 and turn right (head east). Go 1.3 miles to Red Gate Road (Route 624) on the right. Go 0.7 miles on Red Gate to Nelson Road (Route 626), turn right. On the left you will see the entry to Historic Long Branch. Drive in to the parking lot.

This lavish plantation and mansion was started before the War of 1812 by Robert Carter Burwell, with advice from the architect of the U.S. capitol, Benjamin Latrobe. When the war came, Burwell was a captain in the Virginia militia, and died of disease near Norfolk in the fall of 1813 while defending against British attack. If he ever lived in the house, it was not for long. It was enlarged and changed to the “Greek Revival” style (now there are pillars in front and back.) by a relative, Hugh Nelson, grandson of Thomas Nelson, Jr., who was a singer of the Declaration of Independence. When the Civil War threatened, Hugh Nelson was one of Clarke County’s two representatives to the Virginia Secession Convention. He said, “I come from the banks of the sparkling Shenandoah. Those green fields . . . may become fields of blood. Can you blame me, then, if I wish to try all peaceful means, consistent with Virginia’s honor, of obtaining our rights, before I try the last resort? I promise you that when the contest does come, if come it must, the people whom I have the honor to represent . . . will meet it like men . . .” He died as a Confederate officer in the Civil War. From the parking lot, you are looking at the back of the house. BE SURE TO WALK AROUND FRONT AND LOOK IN THE WINDOWS ON THE PORTICO. Look at the magnificent “flying” staircase in the front hall.

[Note: This historic house is open for tours Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4:00 p.m., April through October, but you may walk around the grounds daily from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. There are tables with a beautiful view near the house, and you may picnic.]

Questions #12: There is a huge stable at Long Branch, a little way from the house. How many                            belvederes  does the stable have? [What is a belvedere? Hint: there is one with 8                            windows sitting on the roof of Long Branch.].

10. Mount Carmel Church. Retrace your steps to Route 50, then turn right, heading east. Go cross the Shenandoah River, climb the Blue Ridge at Ashby’s Gap, and as you climb the mountain, look for Route 606 on the left. Cross Route 50’s median strip and turn left on to 606, and in 0.1 mile, you will see the tiny, white, wooden Mount Carmel Church on the right. Pull in. Here at a bend in the road this simple, ancient church stood in the winter of 1865. On Sunday afternoon February 19^th, about 100 Union cavalrymen were returning from a Saturday night raid just over the mountain into Loudoun and Fauquier counties where they had been searching for Mosby’s Rangers. The Union cavalrymen had captured about 25 Confederates, and searched “Green Garden”, the Loudoun county home of one of Mosby’s top officers, Major “Dolly” Richards. Richards had hidden in a secret closet with two other rangers and wasn’t captured. Now Dolly Richards had gathered Mosby Rangers from a number of “safe” houses over the mountain, and had followed the Yankees over Ashby’s Gap. Mosby’s Rangers won the day, as they so often did, killing 13 Yankees, wounding many, capturing 63, freeing the captured Confederates, and getting 90 more horses to use on their next raids.

Question #13: Walk all the way around the old church, by which this skirmish between Mosby’s men                           and Union cavalry raged. How many doors are there? How many windows?

11. Mount Weather and the plane crash site. Return to Route 50, and turn left, crossing the median, to continue heading east. At the top of Ashby’s Gap in the Blue Ridge, you will see Blue Ridge Mountain Road (Route 601) on the left. Take it. Be careful driving this road that rides right along the summit of the Blue Ridge; there are many deer. At 5.9 miles from Route 50, you will see the fencing of the U.S. Government installation at Mount Weather. Once a weather station, after World War II a huge underground base began to be built here. During the 1950s and 60s, it was where the President and up to 3000 other key officials were to go for safety if there was a nuclear war (it is absolutely HUGE under there—a helicopter can fly in). The CIA used to run practice runs in the 1960s. Today the Federal Emergency Management Agency has a base here. Notice how top secret everything here seems to be. You will get a good sense of that if you turn right on Old Blue Ridge Road for a short distance.

Question #14: What do the government signs on the hundreds of yards of fencing say?

Continuing along Route 601, at exactly 1.0 miles beyond Old Blue Ridge Road, you will see a ledge on the right side of the road with a small white cross by it marking an airliner crash site. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, 1994, an airliner flying in to Dulles Airport in fog did not get over the mountain, and crashed into this ledge. All 92 people on Trans World Airlines Flight 514 were killed. The plane came from your left, from the west (flying from Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio). Although nature has grown back over the site now, for many years it looked like a giant lawnmower had come through the trees. The little cross has not been at the site for very long--someone thought we should remember.

12. The Battle of Cool Spring. Continue along Route 601 until you hit Route 7. Turn left (west) on to Route 7. This is Snickers Gap, looking in to Clarke county. Mosby’s men often crossed at this gap in the Blue Ridge to go on raids into the Shenandoah Valley from their “safe” houses in Loudoun and Fauquier counties on the other side of the mountain. Go down the mountain to the Shenandoah River, and just over the bridge, turn right on to Castleman Road, Route 603. You will almost immediately see a Virginia Civil War Trails sign on your right. Pull over so you can get out and read the sign about the July, 1864 Battle of Cool Spring. In July of 1864, Union soldiers were surrounding the Confederate capital at Richmond and the key railroad city of Petersburg just to the south. So Confederate General Jubal Early was sent to sneak into Maryland on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, then to head down and attack Washington, so that the Union would have to send soldiers from Richmond and Petersburg to save Washington. It all worked for Early, except that Washington didn’t fall. On July 18, a very hot, humid day, Union troops under General Crook tried to chase after Early’s Confederate army by crossing the Shenandoah River. Confederates guarded Castleman’s Ferry near here so Union troops went up the river to Island Ford. When they got to your side of the river, they had crossed to Cool Spring Farm—that’s where this battle gets its name. About 13,000 troops were involved in this fight, with 819 killed, wounded, or captured. The Union troops were stopped in their attempt to cross the Shenandoah River. They failed again the next day to get across in a smaller fight up river.

Question #15: What Confederate officer was left in charge of stopping the Yankees from crossing the                          Shenandoah River? Where was he when the Yankees crossed?

                       [Hint: Read the sign. You’ve visited the site where this Confederate officer was.]

Now start down Castleman Road (Route 603). The road goes along the river, and you will find many places to stop if you would like to. After 2.5 miles, you will come to Holy Cross Abbey on the left. Turn in and drive the long (0.8 miles) winding driveway in. This was Cool Spring Farm in July of 1864. Over these fields Union and Confederate soldiers fought desperately. You will come to a bookstore first on the right where you can get information about the Roman Catholic abbey and about the battle. They also sell some baked goods made at the abbey. Just beyond the bookstore is the original Cool Spring Farm house here at the time of the battle, built in 1784. Here there is a battle museum, the work of one of the monks at Holy Cross Abbey. Ask at the gift shop about whether the little museum is open.

Question #16: What color is the Cool Spring farmhouse (now part of the abbey) today?

Return to the public road and turn right. One mile later as the road makes a bend to the left, you will see a granite marker on the right. This is a 1914 marker for the Battle of Cool Spring. This is one of ten stone markers put up that year, by the J.E.B. Stuart Camp of Confederate Veterans 50 years after these battles so people would remember what had happened in Clarke County during the Civil War. Now we are putting up Virginia Civil War Trails signs so people will remember and understand.

Question #17: How many other 1914 stone markers like this one have you read on this tour?

13. Wickliffe Church. At 0.5 miles beyond the stone “Battle of Cool Spring” marker, turn right on to Route 663, Auburn Road. Go 1.0 miles to Auburn Road’s end at Wickliffe Road (Route 608). Notice Auburn Plantation on the left shortly before you reach Wickliffe Road. At Wickliffe Road, turn right and go 0.3 miles to the old brick Wickliffe Church on your right. Park and proceed to look around. This Episcopal Church was built in 1846 to replace an earlier church. Its architecture is very “Virginia”, yet also somewhat different from most old churches we see. Go around back, and you can explore the old graveyard and enjoy an excellent view of the Blue Ridge to the east. Your job is to find the grave of “the faithful servant” from nearby Auburn Plantation who was buried here many years after “the freedom” came. Born a slave in 1830, he was one of thousands of slaves in Clarke freed in 1865.

Question #18: What was this “faithful” servant’s (slave’s) name?

14. Back to Berryville. Turn left out of the church, taking Wickliffe Road 3.7 miles to Route 7. Turn right on Route 7. It is 1 mile to Business Route 7 on the east end of Berryville, two miles to Route 340.

We hope you have enjoyed your tour, and found some places you would like to return to or visit again to show someone else. You’ve explored part of one of Virginia’s most historic and most scenic counties—YOUR County of Clarke. You have also toured a key part of the Mosby Heritage Area. Now, please be sure to sign your Honor Pledge.

HONOR PLEDGE (Required to Quality for T-Shirt):

MY HONOR PLEDGE: I took this tour, saw these sites, and answered these questions on my visit(s).                                               

_______________________________________________ ___________________________

( Sign your name here) (today’s date)

* An Honor Pledge is a Virginia custom, dating back to 1776 in Williamsburg during the American     Revolution. It is truly the sign of a Virginia Lady or Gentleman.