Join the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) for a one-mile loop hike on March 1, at its First Saturday Outing (FSO), at the Reynolds Homestead in Critz. DRBA’s monthly outings are free and open to the public. There are also optional tours of the historic house and grounds available.
Participants will meet by 10 a.m. at the entrance to the Continuing Education Center at Reynolds Homestead to begin the day’s activities.
An outreach campus of Virginia Tech, Reynolds Homestead features the birthplace and boyhood home of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds and a Forest Resources Research Center in the midst of 780 acres of fields and woodlands.
“The Reynolds Homestead and forestry-practices hike is easily DRBA’s most popular and best attended hiking outing,” according to DRBA volunteer and outing coordinator, Wayne Kirkpatrick.
The Reynolds Homestead Forest Resources Research Center (FRRC) in Critz, Virginia, was created in 1969 to study forest biology, including genetics, physiology, and soils. Specific projects include harvesting to increase forest health and productivity, site preparation, forest fertilization, loblolly pine physiology, and forest herbicide testing.
Kyle Peer, Forestry Superintendent for the Reynolds Homestead, will provide insight about the forest projects underway at the Homestead during the hike.
Along the hike route, participants will see the historic spring that inspired the name, Rock Spring Plantation, of this eighteenth-century tobacco estate near the face of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Views from the trail include the nearest peak, the oddly named No Business Mountain, so called, according to tradition, because visitors had “no business” looking for the family’s still.
In 2010 two major improvements were made at the Homestead. The African American Cemetery was enhanced with plantings, grave markings, fencing, signage, and a walkway for visitors. A new gateway entrance was dedicated in October 2012 honoring the tobacco and aluminum foil legacy of the Reynolds family. Visitors to the Continuing Education Center can view drawings and a model of planned renovations to the Center.
In addition, a log tobacco barn was reconstructed near the trail from materials salvaged from three early barns, including the one on site. The barn will help interpret the history of tobacco growing and curing that formed the foundation of the Reynolds family fortune.
Participants in the hike should supply water and lunch, wear hiking boots and layers of water-shedding artificial fabric or wool, and be prepared for rain or wind. All participants will be asked to sign a waiver.
Event Contact: Wayne Kirkpatrick, wynbtyk@embarqmail.com or (540) 570-3511
The Reynolds Homestead is offering afternoon tours of the state and national landmark historic site at a cost of $4 per adult and $2 per student, payable to the tour guide. Built in 1843, the two-story brick home was restored in 1970 to its nineteenth-century state and includes many of the original family furnishings. The son of Hardin and Nancy Reynolds, R. J. Reynolds was born here in 1853. In 1874 he moved to Winston, North Carolina and established a tobacco factory, which grew into a multi-million-dollar company. When he died in 1918 at the age of 65, he was the wealthiest man in North Carolina.
The grounds feature several outbuildings, including a log icehouse and log granary, a brick milk house, and a brick kitchen. In the kitchen hangs a picture of Kitty Reynolds, a slave who tradition says saved Hardin Reynolds’s life by distracting a raging bull. In 1880 a landmark U. S. Supreme Court decision resulting from the flawed murder trials of two of her sons guaranteed protection of legal rights of formerly enslaved persons.
