Volunteer ops are smokin'

Date published: 3/31/2005

George Washington Birthplace National Monument needs volunteers to help look after the memorial's tobacco patches this spring and summer.

Tobacco figured heavily in Virginia history, beginning with the Jamestown landing in 1607. Park ranger and farm manager Dick Lahey started working tobacco at the monument in the 1980s. He hopes this volunteer opportunity will give members of the community an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of Colonial cash-crop cultivation.

Beginning in April, volunteers will be needed to form 500 planting hills out of newly plowed soil.

Then, during the park's "Spring on the Plantation" festival, volunteers will help visitors with a hands-on activity that will involve transplanting tobacco seedlings that are grown from seeds harvested at the park and raised at a local nursery.

Care for the tobacco crop will continue into September and will end around Labor Day when the plants are harvested. Volunteers will be asked to assist with drying the newly harvested leaves.

Community members also will be able to help gather tobacco seeds in the fall. The plants that are grown at the monument are believed to be similar to those grown during George Washington's childhood, and several are allowed to flower and produce precious seeds each year.

Volunteers may participate through the entire tobacco-growing process or just part of it.

Depending on their tasks, volunteers may wear regular work clothes or Colonial costumes.

Those interested in volunteering should contact the park's volunteer coordinator, Roberta Samuel, at 804/224-1732 or roberta_ samuel@nps.gov.

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Date published: 3/31/2005