FARM MUSEUMS

from Cultivate Spring 2023

Medicare Advantage offers additional savings for seniors

Bringing history, innovations and heirlooms to life

BY CHRISTINA AMANO DOLAN

DESTINATION: Chippokes State Park, Surry County

Named one of the oldest continuously-farmed properties in the country, Chippokes State Park in Surry County keeps more than 400 years of American history alive.

From Native American techniques to present-day practices, the Chippokes Farm & Forestry Museum uses over 3,000 artifacts to interpret the evolution of rural Virginia life.

Visitors can stop at the historic Stoner Building at the start of their tour for an overview of the site’s rich history, including stories of its influential Native and African American cultivators.

The neighboring buildings boast a collection of antique timber framing and farming tools from the late 19th to mid-20th century. These include tractors, cotton gins, handmade hunting traps, grain binders, peanut shellers and more. Another display reveals life in a typical 1830s to 1940s farmhouse, including antique furniture and clothing.

Situated on the 1,947-acre historic Chippokes site, the museum offers a uniquely interactive setting, said Chippokes State Park Manager Ben Richard.

“Instead of just walking through a museum and looking at a bunch of items on display, visitors can get immersed in history by taking advantage of what else the park has to offer,” Richard said.

The park offers historical exhibits around every corner, including the 1854 Jones-Stewart Mansion, the circa-1830 River House and Walnut Valley Farm’s 18th century plantation house. The 500-acre farm and cultural garden produce popular Virginia cash crops historically grown on the site.

Visitors can dive into history by hiking or riding the trails, hunt fossils by the James River, or stay overnight in a historic cabin, in the Walnut Valley house or on the 50-site campground. Interactive programs include hearth cooking demonstrations in the mansion’s two-story brick kitchen, tours of the facilities and ranger-led interactions with on-site livestock.

Plan your visit

• 695 Chippokes Park Road, Surry, VA 23883

• Park open year-round, dawn to dusk

• Museum open daily 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., March through November

• Park admission: $7 per vehicle

Learn more at dcr.virginia.gov/stateparks/chippokes, or call 757-294-3728

Legacy of agricultural innovation lives on at McCormick Farm

BY NICOLE ZEMA

DESTINATION: McCormick Farm, Augusta County

Ahistoric blacksmith shop in Augusta County is ground zero for a mechanical ingenuity that forever changed global agriculture.

Visitors can stand in the spot where the first horse-drawn “Virginia Reaper” was designed and built around 1831 at McCormick Farm, now a small museum and National Historic Landmark within the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Cyrus McCormick is credited with inventing the mechanical reaper that helped farmers harvest grain at fivefold the speed with a fraction of the effort, accelerating westward expansion and creating new agricultural markets.

With the help of enslaved blacksmith Jo Anderson, McCormick’s innovations ultimately led to the development of the modern combine, now used globally for precision agriculture. McCormick’s operations moved to Chicago in 1847, later becoming part of the International Harvester Co.

The original log workshop, blacksmith shop, gristmill, family home, picturesque green spaces and interpretive trail are open to visitors year-round. Located conveniently near Interstate 81 in Raphine, the workshop museum display includes 14 miniature models of the McCormick reaper similar to those carried by company salesmen in the late 1800s. It also includes a life-size prototype of the first design, archaeological artifacts and historic photos. An anvil and tools still sit in the blacksmith shop below the workshop’s historical exhibit.

Scythes and other primitive grainharvesting tools line museum walls, comparable to equipment used by ancient Egyptians 2,000 years ago.

“And then Cyrus invents this machine,” said Dr. Gabriel Pent, SVAREC superintendent. “I hope visitors gain an appreciation for how quickly the world has changed in 200 years, relative to the past 2,000 years. It’s neat to see how this little location transformed the world.”

That spirit of innovation continues today on 878 acres owned and farmed by the AREC, where faculty conduct agricultural research, improving the viability of the livestock, forage and forestry production systems in the region.

Plan your visit

• 128 McCormick Farm Circle, Raphine, VA 24472

• Open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Free admission

Learn more at arec.vaes.vt.edu/arec/ shenandoah-valley or call 540-377-2255

Museum highlights the Northern Neck’s rural heritage

BY ALICE KEMP

DESTINATION: Northern Neck Farm Museum, Northumberland County

Situated amongst Heathsville’s farm fields, the Northern Neck Farm Museum embodies the area’s rural heritage with two antique tractors and a bright yellow LOVE sign shaped like an ear of corn.

Founded in 2008 by lifelong farmer Luther Welch, and featuring his collection of antique farm equipment, the museum “showcases the early days of farming here in the Northern Neck,” said Barbara Jean Jones, the museum’s chair.

Visitors can experience how crops in the area were cultivated, harvested and processed—from the mano and metate stones Native Americans used to grind corn, to early wheat threshers and grain cleaners. An exhibit featuring a clothesline with children’s garments and vintage household items gives visitors a glimpse into rural life’s domestic scenes.

“It’s amazing what the farm wife did,” Jones said. “Her days were long too. She had to cook, clean, sew everything. You didn’t just go to the store and buy things. She had to take care of the garden … she did the weeding, the canning, she was the family nurse. There was always something to be done.”

These and other farm tasks were often completed in the dark with only dim kerosene lamps before the Northern Neck received electricity in the 1940s—nearly 60 years after some urban areas. Electrification is a part of local history that closely parallels today’s push for rural broadband internet access, which also allows rural residents to keep pace with their urban counterparts.

“Virginia Electric and Power didn’t want to come out and bring electricity to the Northern Neck, so (farmers) formed a number of electric co-ops and put up their own money to get things done,” said the museum’s treasurer, Sam Johnson, about the rural electrification exhibit.

“It certainly changed rural life,” he added.

In addition to its exhibits, the museum is a source of agricultural education for area youth. A new classroom addition opening this spring will welcome school groups.

“There are a lot of kids in this area, but they’re not on the farm,” Johnson said. “They probably don’t realize they’re in a farming community.”

As for older visitors, a trip to the museum can be wrapped in nostalgia.

“Some of the older people will come through, and they’ll say, ‘Oh we’ve got one of these,’” Johnson said. “People get to remember things that they grew up with, or they’ll learn something new.”