PUBLIC MEETING 07/29/09

A Brief History of a Historic Road and Banshee Reeks

For the past several years a revisionist history of The Woods Road and Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve has been presented by parties with particular interests. This seems like a good time to begin to correct that.

“Roads, trails and waterways are important heritage resources that represent migration, settlement and travel patterns of the County’s early populations. These corridors served an essential transportation function linking different cultures and people in the region. Roads and trails are also the leading places from which residents and visitors experience and enjoy the cultural landscape….Historic travel routes are also essential components of the County’s historic landscape.”[i]

The Woods Road is one of these historic travel routes and appears on some of the earliest maps of the County. The Yardley Taylor map of 1853 shows The Woods Road connecting Oatlands Mill to the Old Carolina Road. Given the importance of both the Mill and the Old Carolina Road, The Woods Road was surely in use long before 1853. In addition, its sunken roadbed indicates a well-traveled route in use for an extensive period of time. The Woods Road was likely given its name because it runs through one of the most significant remaining tracts of upland forest in our narrow part of the Virginia Piedmont. This isn’t virgin forest, and like the surrounding area it reflects the effects of 6,000 years of human occupation and interaction with natural resources, from the first native people up to the 1970’s. It is located within the nationally recognized heritage area The Journey Through Hallowed Ground.

In the 1970’s two decisions were made, one on each side of The Woods Road, that would dramatically define what we see there today. In July 1970 County Engineer J.T. Barnes told the Board of Supervisors that he had found a site for the first county landfill. It was on Evergreen Mills Road and he assured the board “that the site was fully wooded, so it would be shielded from public view from both Evergreen Mills and Route 15”.[ii]

On the south side of the road Thomas Meloy, who ran a working farm at Banshee Reeks, saw what was happening around him and made a different decision. He wrote in his will the following: “I give devise and bequeath to the Commonwealth of Virginia, or an appropriate agency thereof, a scenic easement, in perpetuity, in and over the farm I own in Loudoun County, Virginia, known as Banshee Reeks, exclusively for conservation purposes, thereby to assure the preservation of my said farm for the education and scenic enjoyment of the general public.”[iii]

Flash forward to the 90’s.

There were problems with the original landfill. In their preoccupation on hiding the waste in the woods, those responsible for its construction failed to take into sufficient consideration the hazard their actions could represent to the geology and hydrology of this area, and local wells and groundwater were contaminated with leachate and methane gas.[iv]

Following the death of Thomas Meloy in 1979, Banshee Reeks passed to his heirs. In May 1984, the estate of Thomas Meloy granted a deed of easement on Banshee Reeks to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation which stated “…the Grantors do hereby

grant and convey to the Grantee an open-space easement in gross over, and the right in perpetuity to restrict the use of a tract of real estate containing 519.0441 acres…” and on an additional 180.6609 acres “the Grantors hereby make the following dedications with respect to and conditions on the use of parts of said Parcel B:

1. A 300 foot setback line from County Route 771” (The Woods Road) “is hereby dedicated…Forest and woodland cover within said 300-foot setback will not be disturbed beyond selective cutting…”

2. A 1000-foot set back line from Goose Creek is hereby dedicated”[v]

On February 25, 1991 “a divided Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of the 695-acre Banshee Reeks farm….Betty W. Tatum, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors supported the purchase” that would “... protect 695 acres of open space from development….” and included “200 wooded acres”. [vi]

It was thus that Loudoun County and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation assumed the responsibility for practicing good stewardship and guarding in perpetuity the heirloom Thomas Meloy left to the public of Virginia. The history of The Woods Road is still being written, and it should be guided by the facts.