New River Historical Society

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2014 Annual Hillcrest Garden Dinner

The Wilderness Road Regional Museum is hosting its annual summer fundraising event at Hillcrest Farms in Dublin on Saturday, July 19, 2014, at 6 PM.

Hillcrest Farms is home to Ann Bolt and her late husband Ben Bolt. R.E. Wysor, a Pulaski native, built the historic house in 1910. The house is surrounded by beautiful farmland and allows guests to take in the scenic view while enjoying a home-cooked meal with friends and family.

The menu for the event includes the museum’s Cold Harbor Menu, consisting of cool summer salads, baked ham, homemade rolls, and assorted desserts.

Dinner will be served, starting at 6:30 PM, in a garden setting. Bill Adams will provide music throughout the evening. The suggested donation is $20.

For reservations, call The Wilderness Road Regional Museum at (540) 674-4835 during hours of operation, Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30am to 4:30pm. Reservation calls may also be made to (540) 674-8378 or (540) 674-5055.

To arrive at Hillcrest Farms, travel north on Route 100 from Dublin; after passing New River Community College and Rockwood Manor on the left, turn left onto Black Hollow Road (State Route 636). Turn right almost immediately into Hillcrest Farms. The address is 5280 Black Hollow Road, Dublin, Virginia 24084. This event will take place in rain or shine.

You can also download a PDF flyer.

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Special Public Hearing About Heavy Truck Traffic in Newbern

Special Public Hearing Monday, April 28 about the heavy truck traffic through Newbern and your input and support is needed!

The issue: heavy dump trucks and tractor trailers use the short stretch of Wilderness Road through Newbern as a short cut.

The cure: VDOT can post signs prohibiting through trucks from using this section of Wilderness Road past the museum as a short cut. This requires a public hearing and a favorable vote by the Board of Supervisors. Such a requirement will not prohibit trucks making local deliveries or doing local work.

NRHS Members – SHOW UP & SPEAK OUT Protect our Museum
Monday, April 28, 7 PM
Supervisors Meeting Room, Main Level
Pulaski County Administrative Building
143 Third Street NW, Pulaski, Va

If you cannot show up, please call your supervisor before the meeting!

For more information and possible speaking points, see the information below:

On Monday, April 28, a very important public hearing will be held before the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors. The hearing will start at 7:00 PM in the Supervisors meeting room on the main level of the County Administration Building at 143 Third Street NW in Pulaski. The subject is the heavy truck traffic through the historic village of Newbern.

All business is important to Pulaski County. Business means jobs, taxes, and people spending their money in the county. All forms of commerce contribute to a healthy economy. However, the issue of heavy truck traffic (dump trucks and tractor trailers in particular) is not an issue of having to choose one important part of our economy over another. It is rather one of balancing a small concession on the part of the trucking industry against irreparable harm to a community located on a 1.3 stretch of road that was never built to handle such traffic, a community that is suffering physical and economic harm that also affects the best economic interests of the county and its citizens.

Newbern, the ONLY historic ridge village in Pulaski County, is home to the Wilderness Road Regional Museum. Over the past 4 years, substantial changes and improvements to the museum have increased tourist traffic to the museum. Visitors spend time in the museum, visit the old jail site, and walk around the grounds. This stretch of Wilderness Road lies on the 76 Bike Route, a trans-America bike trail that brings hundreds of bicyclists yearly through Newbern. Many stop to see the museum and use its facilities while resting on the grounds. Other new groups of tourists are coming off I-81 to take a break and visit the museum. While here, they also visit local restaurants and gas stations, and frequently head for Draper or Pulaski to visit the Radcliffe. Tourism is growing in the county and it is valuable to our economy. The Wilderness Road Regional Museum is an important part of this growth.

The 1.3 mile stretch of Wilderness Road under consideration is used by trucks as a short cut/no traffic light route to the quarry or to the trucking industry on Newbern Road. They could easily use Rt. 100, which is built for heavy traffic. By cutting through Newbern on this narrow road bordered by houses built over 200 years ago, they create a hazard for bikers, hikers, and local children. This road was never intended to carry this type of traffic. The vibrations from the heavy truck traffic shake the museum (new cracks are emerging in the old plaster) as well as other historic buildings which were mainly built on dry-stack stone with no footers. The traffic is daunting to visitors who cross Wilderness Road on the crosswalk in front of the museum. The trucks do not stop.

There are days and hours when 7-8 trucks pass the museum in rapid succession, making it impossible to have a conversation in the museum with visitors or during a meeting. Bikers pull off the road, pedestrians jump back, cars pull over to let them pass, and no one can comfortably use the road. The quarry, being a good neighbor and an important business in Pulaski County, posted a sign asking truckers not to use the stretch of Wilderness Road through Newbern. This was moderately successful for a short time but is now ignored. Moreover, it is not the job of the quarry to police the actions of independent truck drivers.

Newbern is a designated Historic District that has been enjoying rejuvenation over the past few years. It is a precious asset for all citizens of Pulaski County. The museum holds some of the most precious artifacts representing our early history, and the archives are extensive, well known, and frequently used. Visitors who have roots anywhere in the area come to Newbern to research their families, and with the organization currently under way by Tal Stanley of Emory and Henry, those records are now more organized and easier to research. The documents collection is even more extensive than previously thought, and is quite impressive for such a small museum and community.

Are dump trucks and tractor trailers important to our economy? Absolutely, and vitally so. However, asking tractor trailers and dump trucks to by-pass the narrow road through historic Newbern does not substantially damage their interests or the economy. Allowing them to continue running through Newbern, Pulaski County’s only historic village, does substantially damage not only the economic interests of the citizens of Newbern: it damages Newbern and the museum as a drawing card for tourists, cyclists and hikers. The Wilderness Road Regional Museum benefits and belongs to us all, and it and Newbern deserve this modest form of protection. The economic interests associated with this far outweigh closing a 1.3 mile stretch of road to through heavy truck traffic.

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Civil War Dinner at Rockwood Manor a Sold Out Event

The day was rainy but enthusiasm and spirits were high at the Civil War Dinner at Rockwood Manor on April 27. It was a sold-out event with every table full. The reenactors were rained out, the History Mobile had a major breakdown and didn’t make it, but the atmosphere was pure Civil War era with some guests in period costumes and author Sharyn McCrumb and her family dressed to represent characters from her books. Rockwood’s long windows and wide porches gave way to views of rain and green fields that could have held any of these characters. The music echoing through the house from the foyer made it even more special.

Sharyn’s after dinner presentation, held in the manor house due to rain, was given in a hushed and eerie atmosphere, rain pounding, as she told of the days and events of yesteryear. It was a special, very personal as well as informative presentation of people and the times. It was so enthusiastically received that Sharyn finally had to end as her voice began to fail. All in all, it was an evening of sharing and historical magic. Our special thanks to Frank Drummond and Rochelle for sharing Rockwood Manor and being such avid NRHS supporters.

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Into the Wilderness Exhibit Update

The digital exhibit panels have been delivered and will be installed when the proper support systems for the panels are delivered. The video producer, Richard Adams, has spent considerable time at the museum and has recorded interviews with Carolyn Mathews and Lloyd Mathews as well we others. Portions of these interviews will be included in the narrative as it is prepared. The 80-page book that accompanies and expands on the information on the panels is in the final stages of production and will be available for sale in the Museum gift shop.

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Archival Work Underway

One of the great hidden treasures of the Wilderness Road Regional Museum are boxes and boxes of ledgers, books, old newspapers, and family documents stored under the eaves in the archival section of the museum. While they are in air-conditioned space, they are not in any special order nor are they being properly housed in archival boxes.

Dr. Tal Stanley and a group of students from Emory and Henry College, operating under a special grant, have started work to scan and digitize these items and then organize them in labeled archival boxes. This is a cooperative effort with Gene Hyde and the Radford University library that will culminate with these digital scans being made available, and free to the public, via the Radford University web site. NRHS will be properly credited for the ownership of these documents and retain all intellectual property.

In the next few years funds will need to be found to renovate the Old Jail to create space for these items along with the current archives.

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July “Cold Harbor” Dinner at Beautiful Hillcrest Farms

Board member Ann Bolt will host and organize the July 20 NRHS Cold Harbor Dinner at her historic home, gardens, and farm, Hillcrest Farms. This dinner is one of the major fundraisers organized by museum volunteers to meet the basic needs of the Wilderness Road Regional Museum. In the past it has been held in the Museum, but thanks to Ann Bolt, beautiful Hillcrest Farms is the new and very perfect venue for this summer dinner.

The buffet-style dinner will be held Saturday July 20, from 5:30 to 7:30 at Hillcrest Farms. It will be served al fresco in and around the house and gardens. There will also be musical groups performing.

Reservations for this dinner can be made by calling the museum at 540-674-4385, by emailing
[email protected] or by visiting the museum and signing up. The cost is a suggested donation of $20.

Directions to Hillcrest Farms: Dublin, North Rte. 100 past NRCC and Rockwood Manor entrance, left on Black Hollow Road (Rt. 636). The entrance to Hillcrest Farms is on the right at 5280 Black Hollow Road just as you pass the River of Life Church on the left. If you pass the entrance, turn around in the church parking lot.

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Gift Shop & Book Store

Volunteer and resident techie Ainsley McDougal has volunteered to take on the task of managing the gift shop and book store, and is currently upgrading the sales and inventory systems. In addition to compiling an inventory of items in the shop, tracking sales and installing a new system to allow us to take credit card payments, she will consult with other gift shop managers to find appropriate items with an acceptable profit margin to sell in the gift shop.

At some point in August there will be a BBQ to show our appreciation for out team of volunteers, and to share updates on current and future projects. There will also be a brief training session to familiarize everyone with the brand-new checkout system and credit card processing.

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Summer Intern at the Museum

Radford University student Kasey Campbell, under the direction of NRHS President Carolyn Mathews, has rapidly become involved in several projects at the museum. One of her projects is to improve the WRRM web presence and accessibility online for the general public. The current site features the WRRM but it is buried amongst other information. Toward this end, Ainsley McDougal is designing two new websites to provide the NRHS and the WRRM their own online identities. Intern Campbell is contributing by writing new content and re-writing current content.

While there will be some overlapping information across the two new websites, the new WRRM website will feature more history of the buildings and detailed information about what is available at the museum, including current displays. Similarly, the new NRHS website will provide a resource for current and potential members, and serve as a method to promote the efforts and purpose of the NRHS.

After both sites are completed an announcement will be sent to state and regional organizations including tourism boards.