Book Description

The Virginia Piedmont, the gently rolling country east of the Blue Ridge, is one of the nation's most treasured rural landscapes - and one of its most endangered. In 1993, the Walt Disney Company's announcement of its plan to build an American history theme park in Haymarket, Virginia, within miles of some of the area's most significant historic sites, sparked intense debate about the impact of the proposed development on the Piedmont and its residents. The struggle that ensued, and Disney's eventual withdrawal of the plan, focused international attention on this beautiful and historic part of the world. With evocative photographs and delightfully informative text, Hallowed Ground takes readers on an insider's excursion down the scenic byways and into the storied past of this special region. Home to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and a host of other great Americans, the Piedmont's graceful foothills and fertile soil helped nurture the ideas that inspired the American Revolution. During the Civil War, Piedmont fields and forests became bloody testing grounds for the nation's survival at places like Manassas, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness. Today, the region's quaint villages and quiet valleys face a different kind of threat from a "blacktop and concrete revolution", as historian James M. McPherson notes in his introduction. Whether in an image of the sunset reflecting off a puddle in a country lane in Delaplane, or in the story of Jack Jouett's midnight ride from Cuckoo Tavern to Charlottesville to warn Governor Jefferson that the British were coming, armchair travelers and born-and-bred Virginians alike will find in Hallowed Ground ample reason to preserve and protect thePiedmont.