Stafford discusses historic site plans

Stafford officials begin talks on Civil War findings at the Regional Landfill

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BY KAFIA HOSH

Date published: 7/16/2008

BY KAFIA HOSH

Stafford County officials are discussing how to turn a recently discovered historical site into a public park.

A subcommittee of the Board of Supervisors and county staff met Monday about the preservation of Civil War sites found in wooded areas of the Stafford Regional Landfill.

The Rappahannock Regional Solid Waste Management Board (R-Board) controls the landfill on Eskimo Hill Road. The 760-acre property is shared by Stafford and the City of Fredericksburg.

The county plans to preserve about 25 acres that include forts used by Union soldiers, two campsites and sandstone quarries.

County officials want to open the park to the public and tie it in to other regional tourism destinations.

"It won't be just local folks that go here," said Chris Hoppe, director of Parks and Recreation.

The challenge lies in creating access to and from the park without disturbing the land.

Supervisors Paul Milde and Harry Crisp agreed the park should be a passive recreational site with a trail system and some interpretive signs.

"The less you can do, the less is disturbed," Crisp said.

It also would minimize costs.

Funding for the proposed park could come from the R-Board's profits, which are shared by the county. The landfill will have a new revenue source this year from a $170,000 annual contract with Ameresco Energy Services Company. (The company converts landfills' methane gas into electricity.)

Protecting the Civil War sites at the landfill is just one of the county's attempts to showcase its history.

Stafford's preservation efforts recently were recognized by the White House.

On Monday, First Lady Laura Bush designated Stafford as a "Preserve America Community." Bush is the Honorary Chair of the Preserve America initiative which encourages community efforts to preserve the nation's cultural and natural heritage.

"I commend you for your commitment to preserving an important part of our nation's historic past for visitors, neighbors, and most importantly, for children," Bush said in a statement.

Kafia Hosh: 540/735-1977
Email: khosh@freelancestar.com

The proposed park tract in central Stafford features 12 archaeological sites, including: Fort 1: This two-faced, 248-foot-long Union Army battery has two gun platforms that may have held 3-inch ordnance rifles or 12-pound Napoleons. At its center is a square, 9-foot-deep supply pit or blockhouse. The fort area includes a zigzag trench and rifle pits. Fort 2: This three-faced, 210-foot-long battery would have had four or five cannons. Fort 3: This three-faced battery, which may have held six guns, included a heavily built blockhouse with below-ground storage for powder and shell. Fort 4: Originally about 200 feet long, this earthwork has been damaged by logging. Winter camps: A picket post and two dug-in winter camps, which had log shelters with fireplaces for the soldiers, neighbor the forts. One camp has what is believed to be an officers' quarters made of sandstone. Corduroy road: Part of the area's wartime road network included a corduroy road built of logs so the Army of the Potomac could move wagons and heavy guns through boggy areas. Part of one such road, built of pine logs, is perfectly preserved in one swampy site. Bridge abutments: Sandstone abutments survive from a bridge that crossed a creek for a well-preserved 18th-century road that was a major route for the Union Army's 11th Corps. Quarries: Two late 18th-century sandstone quarries, one of which appears to have later become a mill, speak to Stafford's role as a provider of building stone. Cut stone was put on skids and pulled by oxen or horses, or loaded onto shallow scows and taken downstream on Accokeek Creek. (The quarry at Government Island, on Aquia Creek, provided sandstone for the White House and the U.S. Capitol.) --From reports by Dovetail Cultural Resource Group and the Friends of Stafford Civil War Sites

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Date published: 7/16/2008

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