Valley's newest national park gets ready for summer visitor programs
The Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park is gearing up for expanded visitor services that include interpretive programs led by National Park Service rangers. Park Ranger Eric A. Campbell, one of three rangers tasked with developing new programs at the park, says that the new programs could begin as early as next June. The park has been in existence since 2002, when a partnership was formed to join a 3,700-acre district that includes the Belle Grove Plantation and the Cedar Creek Battlefield.
The partners include The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Belle Grove, Inc., the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation and Shenandoah County, Va.
Ranger Campbell described the park's development as a work in progress and that many of his plans are still in the draft stage and eventually will need to be formally approved. One program will deal with the history of the Shenandoah Valley with a focus on the area in and around the park as it was before the Civil War. Native American Indians and their tribal areas will be included. “Obviously there'll be some tours on different levels that talk about the Battle of Cedar Creek,” he explained. “We'll talk about the impact the Civil War had on the Shenandoah Valley. We'll probably use some of the stories of civilians who lived on what is now inside the park."
Although much of Campbell's work is still in the planning stages, the two central attractions of the park, Belle Grove and the Cedar Creek Battlefield, have long been popular Valley attractions. Belle Grove Plantation is an 18th Century Jeffersonian manor house surrounded by farm buildings at the southern edge of the main battlefield. It was the home of Issac Hite, Jr., son of one of the original Valley settlers and husband of Nelly Madison, who was U.S. President James Madison's sister. The attraction is open as a museum from April through December and regularly offers a very popular assortment of events; everything from heritage workshops to antiques appraisals to beer-tasting festivals.
The Battle of Cedar Creek reenactment is one of the largest of its kind in the Shenandoah Valley, held each October on the weekend closest to the battle's anniversary date of Oct. 19. The event draws thousands of spectators and even more thousands of participating living history reenactors. Campbell noted that the battle reenactment is one of the few exceptions where firearms are allowed to be used inside the boundaries of a national park.
Although there are no regular battlefield tours at this time, Campbell says that visitors can still take a self-guided driving and walking tour by purchasing a tour guide booklet at the Cedar Creek visitor center, which is located on U.S. Route 11, the Old Valley Pike, within sight of Belle Grove.
Campbell says that the history story that will be developed by the National Park Service for interpretation by rangers is one that needs to be told. "This is an area that saw troop movement, campaigning and battle, from 1862 all the way through late 1864," he says. "Three solid years the Valley saw a lot of military maneuvering and its impact on the civilian population, let alone the soldiers, was tremendous."
After working at Gettysburg National Military Park for about 20 years, Campbell says that the national beauty of the Shenandoah Valley is one of the things that impresses him the most. He also says that the battlefield land is in surprisingly good shape, even though efforts to preserve it have only come in the past couple of decades.
"Overall, the landscape itself hasn't changed that much. And so that's very striking to me. That you can go out there as a park ranger, and I'm hoping we'll do this this summer, and we'll begin to be able to tell the story of what happened here. And visitors can easily imagine it. Because the landscape itself has not changed that much," he says.
Although much of Campbell's work is still in the planning stages, the two central attractions of the park, Belle Grove and the Cedar Creek Battlefield, have long been popular Valley attractions. Belle Grove Plantation is an 18th Century Jeffersonian manor house surrounded by farm buildings at the southern edge of the main battlefield. It was the home of Issac Hite, Jr., son of one of the original Valley settlers and husband of Nelly Madison, who was U.S. President James Madison's sister. The attraction is open as a museum from April through December and regularly offers a very popular assortment of events; everything from heritage workshops to antiques appraisals to beer-tasting festivals.