Blackrock Springs Site

On September 23, 1985, Henson Airlines Flight 1517 crashed in Grottoes, Virginia, while on approach to the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. The two pilots and twelve passengers were killed.

The Paine Run Rockshelter (44-AU-158) is an archaeological site in Shenandoah National Park, in Augusta County, Virginia, United States. The site was discovered during the early 1970s as part of a comprehensive survey of the national park. It is one of fifteen sites that the survey found along Paine Run,: 135  a group that also includes archaeological site 44-AU-154 and the Blackrock Springs Site.: 136  Located in a mountainside hollow,: 21  near three other rockshelters,: 135  the site is deeply stratified.: 25  It is a small shelter, only about 45 square metres (480 sq ft) in area, and little taller than the average man.: 71  The shelter faces northward, toward the narrow floodplain and Paine Run, which flows approximately 15 metres (49 ft) away;: 73  it sits just east of site 44-AU-154.: 71 While other archaeological sites in Paine Run Hollow date primarily from the Archaic period,: 43  the rockshelter appears to have been occupied at a period of culture change, as the inhabitants were in the process of transitioning from the use of quartzite to cryptocrystalline for their stone tools.: 42  Evidence of occupation persists as late as the fourteenth century AD.: 167  The site's two components yielded eight hundred and fifteen hundred separate artifacts in total;: 198  its artifactual density was the highest of any site recorded by the survey, prompting its interpretation as a regional base camp used frequently by larger groups of people.: 163  The surveyors readily conducted a test excavation after finding many lithic flakes, pieces of pottery, and projectile points on the surface.: 73  The ceramics are dominated by a form known as "Albemarle cord-marked", which represents nearly two-thirds of potsherds found in the shelter.: 78  Meanwhile, the shapes of the surviving lithic flakes (small pieces with almost no cores) appears to indicate that toolmaking done in the shelter consisted of refining rough work that had been performed elsewhere.: 80 The site's archaeological value is so significant that it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 1985, together with 44-AU-154 and the Blackrock Springs Site.

Site AU-154 (in full, 44-AU-154) is an archaeological site in Shenandoah National Park, in Augusta County, Virginia, United States. The site was discovered during the early 1970s as part of a comprehensive survey of the national park. It is one of fifteen sites that the survey found along Paine Run,: 135  a group that also includes the Paine Run Rockshelter and the Blackrock Springs Site.: 136 Site 44-AU-154 lies on the southern side of Paine Run at the mouth of its hollow, on the edge of the national park and at the foot of the Blue Ridge, thus occupying a transition zone between the Shenandoah Valley and the mountain. It extends from the stream to the base of the mountain, approximately 25 metres (82 ft) north to south, while east to west it is four times as long.: 66  At the time of its discovery, a Forest Service fire road bisected the site; the northern half was partially occupied by a privately owned house, while the southern half was part of the national park.: 67  Approximately 400 metres (1,300 ft) east of the site is a rock outcrop with several rockshelters, including the significant Paine Run Rockshelter.: 71 Out of more than 2,000 artifacts discovered in a cursory excavation of the road and roadside sections of the site, more than 98% were locally obtainable jasper and quartzite. Some of the projectile points found at the site were characteristic of the Savannah River and Halifax cultures, allowing the site's occupation to be dated as occurring between 3000 and 1000 BC.: 69  During this time, the site is likely to have been used as a semipermanent base camp for Indians relying either on the mountain resources or the resources of the valley, whether for tool-manufacturing, processing hunted animals, or using plants found nearby.: 71  Because AU-154 bears evidence of a wider range of activities than do some of the smaller sites located higher up on Paine Run, it may have been a central point for activities occurring at the single-use higher camps.: 140 The site's archaeological value is so significant that it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 1985, together with the Paine Run shelter and the Blackrock Springs Site.

Deep Run Ponds Natural Area Preserve is a 706-acre (2.86 km2) Natural Area Preserve in Rockingham County, Virginia. The preserve contains one of the largest remaining systems of Shenandoah Valley sinkhole ponds in Virginia. Such ponds are found in Rockingham and Augusta counties; their water levels fluctuate throughout the year. The preserve's eight sinkhole ponds support a variety of rare plant and animal life; two ponds support the rare Virginia sneezeweed (Helenium virginicum), while others contain black-fruited spikerush (Eleocharis melanocarpa), northern St. John's-wort (Hypericum boreale), Buxbaum's sedge (Carex buxbaumi), and northern bog clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata).The preserve is owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. It does not include improvements for public access, and visitors must make arrangements with a state-employed land steward prior to visiting.

Harriston is a census-designated place in Augusta County, Virginia. The population as of the 2010 Census was 909.

Mount Fair is a historic home and farm complex located in Albemarle County, Virginia. The main house was built about 1848, and is a 2+1⁄2-story, five-bay, frame building with Greek Revival style details. It has a hipped roof with widow's walk and a one-story, one-bay porch with a flat roof supported by Doric order columns. Also on the property are a contributing detached kitchen, a greenhouse, and two contributing structures, an icehouse and a spring house. The tract also has three contributing sites: the ruins of slave quarters, a slave cemetery, and a family cemetery.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Mountfair is an unincorporated community in Albemarle County, Virginia.

Sugar Hollow is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western Albemarle County, Virginia, United States. It is defined by the north and south forks of Moorman's River which drain into a reservoir built in 1947, that supplies water for the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. The Appalachian Trail runs north and south along the upper reaches of this beautiful natural area. Sugar Hollow was once inhabited by members of the Monacan Indian Nation, a Native American tribe linguistically related to the Sioux. With the coming of Europeans in the early 18th century these groups departed westward over the mountain into the valley and beyond. They left behind such evidences as a burial mound and projectile points. By the late 1920s Sugar Hollow was populated by hundreds of families, most of whom were subsistence farmers. They had erected schools, churches, mills, and various businesses that capitalized on the abundant timber resources of that area. The creation of Shenandoah National Park forced most of those families off their ancestral homelands. Shenandoah National Park was created entirely from private lands that were taken by the State of Virginia through the law of eminent domain. Residents in the upper reaches of this mountain hollow were forced to either move west, across the mountain into Augusta County, Virginia, or Rockingham County, Virginia, or else move farther down the Blue Ridge to the east. This physical human displacement forever changed the character of this mountainous region. Bitter controversy surrounded the establishment of Shenandoah National Park. Displaced family clans were splintered, their homes removed and many ancestral burying grounds were necessarily abandoned. A well-maintained public road from the east, passing through the village of White Hall, Albemarle County, Virginia, now allows vehicular access into lower Sugar Hollow. An unpaved parking area above the reservoir, just outside the Shenandoah National Park boundary, gives day-hikers access to trails that parallel the river's forks. The personal sacrifices of an earlier generation provide nature-centered recreational opportunities today.

Grottoes is an incorporated town in Augusta and Rockingham counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 2,668 at the 2010 census. The Rockingham County portion of Grottoes is part of the Harrisonburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the small portion that extends into Augusta County is part of the Staunton–Waynesboro Micropolitan Statistical Area. Only seven of the town's 2,668 residents reside in Augusta County.Grottoes is home to the Grand Caverns, America's oldest show cave.

Grand Caverns, formerly known as Weyer's Cave, is located in the central Shenandoah Valley in the town of Grottoes, Virginia, United States. A limestone cavern, it claims the distinction of being America's oldest show cave, in operation since 1806.In 1973, the National Park Service designated the cave a National Natural Landmark in recognition of its shield formations and other features, such as flowstone, stalactites, and stalagmites.

Crimora is a census-designated place (CDP) in Augusta County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,209 at the 2010 census, a 23% increase from the 1,796 reported in 2000. It is part of the Staunton–Waynesboro Micropolitan Statistical Area.

The Battle of Port Republic was fought on June 9, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Port Republic was a fierce contest between two equally determined foes and was the most costly battle fought by Jackson's Army of the Valley during its campaign. Together, the battles of Cross Keys (fought the previous day) and Port Republic were the decisive victories in Jackson's Valley Campaign, forcing the Union armies to retreat and leaving Jackson free to reinforce Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond, Virginia.