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Sharing the past
Businessman-farmer sells endangered Orange County Civil War battlefield to preservation groups.Date published: 5/10/2003
Deal protects Mine Run campaign site Growing up in West Virginia, Bill Meadows never had the luxury of indoor plumbing. Today, the Orange County businessman and farmer has a house with seven bathrooms. And that's just in one of the handful of homes he owns. Meadows, who operates 23 nurseries around Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia, has amassed great wealth over the years, including a nearly 800-acre farm with lush hills. It's also the place where thousands of Americans fought in 1863 during the Civil War's Mine Run campaign. Meadows has never forgotten his roots. So when he and his wife, Betty, decided to scale back, they chose not to sell the historic land to a developer but, instead, to make sure it's preserved for eternity. "This is something that I wanted to do in my heart," Bill Meadows said, standing before about 50 people gathered at the eastern Orange County property yesterday to announce the sale of the land. "We raised our two children here, and now I want to share it with other children." In a novel land deal, Meadows--who now lives in Spotsylvania County's Fawn Lake subdivision--sold about 685 acres of his property to the Civil War Preservation Trust. The trust, a nonprofit battlefield preservation group, had been eyeing the historic land north of State Route 20 for some time. Earlier this month, with help from the Piedmont Environmental Council and two federal grants, the group handed over $1.2 million for the property. The land was valued at more than $2 million. "Thanks to the generosity and community-mindedness of Mr. Meadows historic farmland will be preserved for all Americans to enjoy," said Jim Lighthizer, president of the trust, which has preserved 10,000 acres nationwide since 1999. The land deal was announced from a pavilion overlooking a lake on the Meadows' property near Locust Grove. Among those gathered were federal officials, historians and some Civil War re-enactors. This is the first time the Washington-based trust has partnered with the PEC, a nonprofit conservation and regional land trust. "This is an excellent example of a win-win deal," said Christopher Miller, president of the PEC, which will hold an easement on the land along with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.
Date published: 5/10/2003
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