Cultural History
History of the Deerfield Ranger District
Civilian Conservation Corp (Ramsey's Draft & Rattlesnake)
Two Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) Camps are known to have existed on the Deerfield Ranger District.
Confederate Breastworks
General Edward Johnson's Army of Northwest Confederate States included the following regiments: 12th Georgia; 25th Virginia; 31st Virgina; 44th Virginia; 52nd Virginia and 58th Virginia.
Mountain House
An abundance of history can be found at the Mountain House Recreation Area on U.S. 250 on the Deerfield Ranger District.
Mountain House lies at the foot of Shenandoah Mountain, at the lower end of Ramsey's Draft Wilderness. After the Staunton to Parkersburg Turnpike was built in 1838, the house served as a toll station and tavern. At the end of a full day's travel from Staunton, the house provided a rest stop for travelers before they began the long climb up the mountain.
The focal point of the house was the wagon room, where wagon masters could warm themselves in front of the large fireplace and roll out their sheepskins and blankets to sleep on the floor. The evening meal cost 25 cents and lodging was 10 cents.
A pipe made of hollowed-out logs carried water from a spring to the house.
A stable and open field lay in front of the house where the picnic area is now located, and fields of corn, beans, and potatoes extended nearly a mile down the valley.
The Rogers family owned Mountain House during the Civil War. In 1862, a large body of troops was stationed here, including the 12th Georgia Infantry Regiment and several Virginia regiments. The Virginia Military Institute cadets also campaigned in the area. These forces at Mountain House (called Camp Shenandoah by the soldiers) could be called by cannon signal to reinforce the defenders at the breastworks of Fort Johnson on top of the mountain.
The Whistleman family lived in Mountain House in 1912 when Forest Service employees used it as their headquarters as they surveyed the surrounding forest lands. These lands were part of the first tracts purchased to create the new Shenandoah National Forest (now George Washington National Forest).
In 1918, Mountain House was destroyed by fire. Today visitors can picnic in the shade of old apple trees in what was the front yard of Mountain House. Place names like Deadmans Hollow, Georgia Camp Hollow and Old Road Hollow leave a hint of the colorful history that once surrounded this mountain valley.
Wallace Tract House
 
The Wallace Tract House is a 2-story brick house which was built in 1857. It contains about 2600 sq. feet. It has eight rooms with no bath. There was water in the kitchen from a well. The house had electricity, but no central heating system. Each of the rooms has a fireplace. The floors are made of pine. A wooden porch was added to the original house sometime along the way. The house has deteriorated and has been vandalized over the years. Today we continue to try to keep the house boarded up, primarily to protect it from the weather. There has been occasional interest in restoring the house for a "bed and breakfast" or something similiar. Due to the condition of the house and high cost to restore, along with the poor vehicle access, no one has been serious about this.
History of the Dry River Ranger District
The area now known as the Dry River Ranger District ise among the oldest Forest
Service land holdings in the east.
Just two years after the Weeks Law was passed, allowing land acquisitions
for watershed protection, the first land purchases were made in the area west
of Harrisonburg, Virginia.
This area was known as the Shenandoah Purchase Unit. The unit was to give
four things to a new National Forest; its name, office, first supervisor, and
two districts.
When the Forest was formed in 1917, it took on the Shenandoah name. Shenandoah
means “daughter of the stars”. It was not changed to the George
Washington National Forest until 1932 when it was changed to avoid confusion
with the newly forming Shenandoah National Park.
Also, the purchase unit’s administrative offices were in Harrisonburg.
This was to become a location of the Supervisor’s Office for the new
National Forest. That office was maintained in Harrisonburg until 1996 when
the Supervisors’ Offices of the George Washington and the Jefferson National
Forests merged and is now centrally located in Roanoke, Virginia.
The first Supervisor for the new Forest also came from this unit. S. H. Marsh
had been Forest Examiner in charge of the Shenandoah Unit, while E. D. Clark
headed up the two purchase units further north on what was to become the Lee
Ranger District.
On April 16, 1917, William L. Hall, Acting Regional Forester, wrote a letter
to Marsh informing him that the three purchase units would be combined to form
a new National Forest. In his letter, Hall instructed Marsh to become the Forest
Supervisor. It was also in April 1926 in an old field near North River that
the Forest Service planted its first trees. With an eye toward giving the Forest
the best possible start, 20 acres of trees were planted.
In the new Forest, the area now known as the Dry River Ranger District was
divided into two Districts: Brocks Gap on the north with an office in Broadway
and North River to the south with an office in Dayton.
In 1929, the two Districts were combined to form the Dry River with an office
in Bridgewater. Abner Casey was to be the first Ranger to serve under the Dry
River name.
Only one other major geographic change affected the District. In 1960, the
Broadway District was formed, taking some land from the Dry River.
The Broadway Office was closed in 1971, and the land was reabsorbed into the
Dry River and Lee Districts.
Like other sections of the Forest, the Dry River has had to contend with both
natural and man-made disasters. From the start, the District had be active
in fire prevention and control in woods that had been badly damaged by timber
operations, mining, and fires.
By 1926, Harrisonburg Mutual Telephone Company listed phone lines running
to fire towers throughout the District including Cow Knob and Reddish Knob.
The latter was sold for the grand sum of $419.95 after fire towers fell out
of use in the 1970s.
The Civilian Conservation Corps included fire towers in its many work projects
during the 1930s and early 1940s. The High Knob Fire Tower, one CCC project,
is still standing and has just recently been renovated.
The District’s rivers and creeks have risen above their banks on several
occasions causing flooding. A District water report states that unprecedented
rains in June 1949 caused flooding and irreparable damage to both the upper
and lower North River drainages.
The District’s roads and bridges were also heavily damaged when more
than 20 inches of rain fell in November 1985. After the flood, pictures showed
picnic tables that had floated high up onto earthen dams. Despite the high
water, none of the District dams failed.
Other important District history dates include May 1964 when the Brandywine
Recreation Area was dedicated; May 15, 1966 when Elkhorn Lake was dedicated;
and July 1968 when the newly constructed Todd Lake was opened.
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