Traveling down Route 3 again

At last, we are heading east again leaving Stevensburg and aiming for Lignum. Today’s plan is to map out our journey for the next week or so and then spend the last bit of time catching up on news.

Traveling will be a bit slow as they are calling for rain and this time of year, the roads get pretty muddy. Even Grant didn’t try to move his troops out of Culpeper and down this road until early May.

Speaking of roads there are many old ones in the county that you may never find unless you love a walk through the woods and have successfully received landowners’ permission.

Long ago when roads served the simple purpose of moving goods from field to warehouse, they took the straightest line between two points regardless of whose property it crossed. For obvious reasons miles of those roads have been abandoned and returned to private hands.

Coming out of Stevensburg and looking to the right, one will pass the notorious Wicked Bottom and nearby Rev. John Thompson’s magnificent Salubria.

Salubria is one of the finest examples of 18th century Georgian architecture standing in Virginia. Built in the mid 18th century for Thompson’s bride-to-be, Lady Spotswood, widow of the royal acting governor of Virginia. Legend has suggested that Lady Spotswood’s folks did not approve of the marriage thinking that the good reverend was beneath her status. To counter this evaluation of his position, he built Salubria to impress his future in-laws. Truth or fiction it is a grand house now owned by the Germanna Foundation.

Less than a half-mile past Salubria is a road on the left called Clay Hill Road. If you were to take the road and turn almost immediately to the right, you would once again be on the original road and in a dangerous spot known as “Devil’s Leap.” On either side of the roadway are huge boulders supposedly frequented as hiding places for evil characters intent upon thievery and assault of innocent travelers.

If the road were open today it would continue on around the back of the Culpeper Growers property forming an intersection with Carrico Mills Road (formerly the Brandy Road) at La Grange. Alas, it is closed and for our purposes we will stay on Route 3, paralleling the original road and turn left on Carrico Mills Road.

At the intersection of Route 3 and Carrico Mills Road, a large brick house stands in the field to the right, believed to have been built just after the Civil War and owned by the Willis, Campbell and Kelsey families.

As we turn left, the field to our right and close beside Route 3 is the location of the Brook Run Site. Excavations conducted by archeologists working for VDOT suggest the site was a prehistoric jasper mine in operation 11,000-14,500 years ago making it possibly the earliest occupation of Paleo-Indians discovered in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

I will leave you to cogitate on that information. Our next trip will take us to Maddensville and depending on what we find there, on to Lignum.

In the meantime, if anyone has any information regarding two ladies by the names of Miss Neff and Miss Heff (spelling may not be correct), please contact me. They taught Bible studies in Culpeper County to elementary school children during the 1940s and 50s.

Until next week, be well. Happy Birthday, Marley!