The historic Bush Mill takes you back to a time when people lived simpler lives, when millwrights and craftsmen used Scott County’s abundant natural resources to build overshot, water-powered grist mills with wooden gears, leather drive belts and wooden water wheels.The land and mill was purchased in the 1850s by Valentine Bush and his wife, Nancy Gose Bush, who moved to the area from Russell County. The Bush family added a water-powered sawmill upstream and...
Experience early rural life at the Blue Ridge Institute's Blue Ridge Institute & Museum"s Farm, a re-created 19th century Blue Ridge, Virginia-German farmstead. Costumed interpreters prepare meals over the open hearth, drive oxen, blacksmith, and carry out a host of other household and farm chores of the period. In the gardens and around the log farm buildings heirloom vegetables and historic breeds of livestock speak to the region's agricultural heritage.The Blue Ridge Institute & Museum's Farm offers...
Visit Ingles Farm! Arguably one of the most historically significant sites in Virginia, Ingles Farm transports visitors back to the days of westward expansion, Native Americans, and the daily struggle to survive. The property was settled by William and his wife, Mary Draper Ingles, in the 1750’s. In addition to being a working farm, the Ingles' built and operated a ferry and tavern to transport and shelter some of the hundreds of thousands of settlers...
At Fairview, learn about the Hagy family, a family whose history parallels the American experience. The Hagys were Swiss immigrants to the American colonies, served in the War for Independence, moved to Virginia along the Great Road, and planted their roots in Washington County; their descendants were the founders of the Hagy Wagon Company. Experience what life was like for the Hagys and other nineteenth-century Southwest Virginia families. Learn about agricultural practices, from the grains...