Why just a bike trail?
As a full disclosure – I, nor my property, are directly affected by this project. However, I feel the following comments are necessary for the overall local public good because one significant potential feature of this project has not been mentioned by either side.
I first offer some general comments about the development process of this and similar projects. It seems that the state highway transportation department is the one state agency that has the most impact upon citizens in their daily life, yet has the least accountability to the general public that it is supposed to serve, nor even to the local governments. Why should this be?
It is frustrating that the highway transportation department does not desire public input before a proposed project is initiated, but only after they have committed to it do it. It also seems that this agency is so narrow focused on each project that it seldom considers the comprehensive impact to the local public’s welfare. This project obviously was not initiated by a local need or desire, but by outside special interests groups. Those self-serving outside interest promoting this project were well aware that there was significant local opposition and went about it in a most discreet way to hide their intentions from public scrutiny. This lack of genuine transparency should be a very troubling point to anyone interested in a fair and responsible government process.
Allow me to first offer a brief review of the history and geography of that area of northwestern Botetourt and eastern Craig County areas. Around 1900, most of Botetourt’s industry was located in its northern areas of Oriskany, Eagle Rock, and Buchanan, while the southern areas of Daleville and Troutville were still mostly agriculture related. The name “Craigs Creek” began to appear on property deeds by the early 1700s, indicating that white settlers were actively using the lands in the upper James River tributaries. Also very notable was that old maps, of that era, show a vast network of public roads between what is now the communities of Glen Wilton, Gala, Eagle Rock, Roaring Run, Oriskany, Fincastle, and New Castle, along with multiple connections points toward adjacent counties. Many of those economic arteries have now been severed by vast government landholdings.
The Craigs Creek Valley was also part of the vast Allegheny Mountains region’s iron ore deposits and multiple mines and furnaces were in the area well before the Civil War. Just before 1900, with the nationwide industrial boom on-going, local efforts were made to tap into the valley’s timber and iron resources. A railroad was built to the Oriskany and Fenwick mines sites and then extended on to New Castle. At its peak, there were numerous passenger and freight trains daily connecting to the C&O’s main line at Eagle Rock.
The railroad branch line was very prosperous until about 1925 when more practical iron ore mines were opened in the Minnesota region of the Great Lakes. With that loss of ore traffic a steady local economic decline began. The railroad first applied to the State Corporation Commission in 1933 (during the Depression) to abandon the branch line. Due to significant opposition from Craig County interests, the C&O Railway was only allowed to reduce the number of runs in the following decades. Permission was finally granted in 1960 for full abandonment. Also, during the Depression of the 1930s with the extraction industries being hit hard, thousands of acres were purchased very cheaply by the recently created federal government’s national forests. Much of these acres came from the lands the iron and timber companies had owned, but also numerous small acreages of struggling rural farmers. This transfer of lands to the federal government took those lands almost completely out of any possible economic activity equation, forever.
When the state highway department received the right-of-way in about 1961, it soon opened up parts of it as new roads to back-feed others that had to ford creeks. However, then they sat on the remaining asset for decades. With the above-mentioned government landholdings, the public roads in the valley are now mostly a series of dead-end roads connected to the outside world by only a single outlet at each end of a long-crooked valley road. That road (Route 615 / Craigs Creek Road) is often blocked by flooding. This point is demonstrated by the unofficial link of railroad bed kept open to access Oriskany, from the New Castle direction, during high water.
The same flooding happens at multiple points along Route 615 between Eagle Rock and Oriskany. All of those folks have no access to an ambulance or fire truck during a flood. If the #66 bridge at Parr, and the #92 bridge at Hipes were rebuilt, as they did the #13 bridge a few years ago, then multiple connection points, between water blockages, could be made to Route 615. Bridge #13 (mil post 1.3) was rebuilt to 25 tons – about twice that of a heavy fire truck.
This “transportation” project funds the rebuilding of the multiple iron bridges on this railroad bed for the use of bicycles. Why should it be limited to only bicycles? The whole Botetourt County portion of it should be opened up to public automobile use for the convenience of saving travel time and public safety. This is generally not needed within the Craig County portion of Route 615 because the road rarely floods there.
The argument has already been made, by the project proponents, that it would be OK for the trail to be shared with the “lightly used vehicle traffic” – so let the vehicles also share the forthcoming new portions with the bikes! Why should the bikes be given exclusive use of such a needed public resource?
As usual, the local governments are prone to take whatever free handouts become available, and support whatever projects are offered, especially where economic development is sorely needed. However, this often blinds them to consider the comprehensive long-term impacts.
Let us consider a comprehensive application of this project for the local residents’ needs, and not just the desires of an outside special interest group.
Kevin Riddle
Eagle Rock
A look at James Breckinridge
As we hear of the proposed demolition of the James Breckinridge Law office, which is incorporated in the building which housed the Botetourt County Historical Museum from 1966-2022, we should pause to reflect on who James Breckinridge was and something of his importance to Botetourt and beyond.
James Breckinridge was born in March 1763 in the home of his parents, Robert and Leticia Breckinridge in an area we know as Daleville, which was at the time was in the bounds of Augusta County. Slightly under seven years later, the fledgling county of Botetourt was organized in this same home.
Young James enlisted in a company of rifleman as a private during the Revolutionary War in a company of Botetourt riflemen commanded by his uncle William Preston and served until 1781 by which time he had been promoted to the rank of Ensign on the staff of General Nathanael Greene. He continued his military service in the Botetourt County and Virginia militias rising to the rank of Brigadier General during the War of 1812, when he led the 3rd Virginia regiment into Maryland to defend it against the British invasion.
After studying at Liberty Hall (now Washington & Lee) and serving as a deputy clerk of court, in addition to studying law at William and Mary under the legendary George Wythe, Breckinridge returned to Botetourt in 1789 and began the practice of law in Botetourt County which he continued for 40+ years in a portion of the building which is slated for demolition. During this time he also served as Commonwealth Attorney in Botetourt and as a trustee of the Town of Fincastle.
In addition to the practice of law, Breckinridge also was active politically serving in the Virginia House of Delegates for 14 years, during which time he championed the construction of the James River and Kanawha Canal and the formation of the University of Virginia.
Breckinridge served in the U.S. Congress from 1809-1817 during the term of James Madison. He was friends with both Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson whom we know visited Breckinridge in his home in Fincastle.
James also entertained Lewis and Clark on their trips through Fincastle and local legend holds that Lewis proposed to one of his daughters only to be rejected. We don’t know if any of these distinguished guests visited this office, but it is feasible to think that they may have.
Breckinridge was on the 1818 committee that Jefferson put together to locate University of Virginia and he served on its Board of Visitors from 1819-1833.
During the time that James was not practicing law, serving in the military or public office, he was a successful planter, businessman and land speculator. He accumulated 4,000 acres in Botetourt and built the handsome home of Grove Hill west of Fincastle. On this property, in addition to farming and horse racing, he operated a brick yard, a tannery, a forge and a mill, the latter of which is still standing.
Breckinridge was nominated by the Federalist Party and ran unsuccessfully for the U..S Senate in 1796 and for Governor of Virginia in 1799. Much of his life and importance has been forgotten in the hustle and bustle of modern life, but his legacy lives on in Botetourt. We should not allow ourselves to forget this man who figured so prominently in the life of Botetourt, as well as the Commonwealth. A building may be built from bricks and mortar, but it is what happens inside the building that can make a difference in our history. We cannot—we should not—forget the importance that James Breckinridge–and his law office—has meant to the history of Botetourt in particular, as well as Virginia and the nation.
Ed Holt
President, Botetourt County Historical Society
