17 Occoneechee Plantation

This hike at Occoneechee State Park, near big Buggs Island Lake, takes a pair of nature trails and connects to the Old Plantation Trail, where you can tour the remnants of an 1800s cotton plantation. After entering the plantation grounds, you will see remnants of their lifeways, from an old outbuilding to ice pits to the gardens that once adorned the manor. Note that this hike connects to other park trails that can add to your mileage.

Start: Upper end of state park boat ramp parking area

Distance: 1.4-mile balloon loop

Hiking time: About 1.5–2 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Trail surface: Mostly natural-surface path and gravel

Best season: Year-round

Other trail users: None

Canine compatibility: Leashed dogs permitted

Land status: Virginia state park

Fees and permits: Parking permit required

Schedule: Open daily year-round

Maps: Occoneechee State Park; USGS Clarksville North

Trail contact: Occoneechee State Park, 1192 Occoneechee Park Rd., Clarksville, VA 23927; (434) 374-2210; virginiastateparks.gov

Finding the trailhead: From downtown Clarksville, take US 58 east for 1.7 miles to the Occoneechee State Park entrance on your right. Enter the park and stay right toward the main park boat ramp. After 0.3 mile turn left and begin the boat ramp loop road. At the end of the upper parking area, on the left, look for the Warriors Path Nature Trailhead. Trailhead GPS: N36 37.908' / W78 32.028'

The Hike

As the residents of Virginia and what became the United States in general began moving westward from the East Coast, planters cleared what seemed an endless forest to plant their crops. Revolutionary War veterans were paid for their services with large land grants. Land was readily available. In those early days indigo, hemp, and some foodstuffs were produced.

Labor was, however, in short supply. Planters made up for this by using slaves to work the fields. Up until 1778, slaves could be imported from Africa. However, this practice was outlawed and became ultimately the first step in ending slavery altogether. It was patently obvious to the Virginians that fighting for their freedom from the English in Europe while simultaneously enslaving blacks from Africa were actions that contradicted one another.

Nevertheless, the high returns for growing tobacco in the Old Dominion proved too tempting. The large plantations grew heaping harvests of tobacco, which quickly exhausted the soil. Therefore, they would have to move on to other plots to keep production up. The Occoneechee Plantation was established on roughly 3,000 acres in 1839 by William Townes. These planter farms were self-sufficient mini-communities in their own right. The rolling terrain along the Roanoke River proved productive. The Occoneechee Plantation thrived.

The hike route passes by the Crudup Cemetery.

William Townes died after the Civil War, and the slave labor ended. The plantation house along with several surrounding acres were bought by a man named Dempsey Graves Crudup. The former Confederate captain, along with his wife and child, enjoyed life on the hilltop overlooking the valley below and tended the elaborate multiterraced garden that lay in the shadow of the house.

Unfortunately, the plantation house succumbed to fire on Christmas Eve of 1898. The family had lit candles on their Christmas tree and it caught fire, burning the building to the ground. However, the foundation and outlines of the house can still be viewed, along with the Crudup Cemetery. You can also walk the terraced gardens amid plants that have lived well over a century as well as other garden enhancements. The hike also visits outlying areas of the plantation, explaining life back in the mid-1800s here in Southside Virginia.

In 1953 the Roanoke River was dammed downstream, near Castle Heights. The backup of the 48,000-acre lake extended beyond Clarksville. Much of the land that was part of the Occoneechee Plantation became submerged, lost to the waters of time. However, the plantation site and immediate lands around it were preserved and became the centerpiece of Occoneechee State Park. Facilities were developed beginning in 1968 and now include a large and busy boat ramp, the campground, cabins, and a network of trails that extends beyond this hike.

As you walk the grounds of the state park, which was formerly the plantation and the land of the Occoneechee Indians for whom the plantation was named before that, try to imagine the lives led back then and how times have changed. The hike is fairly easy and allows ample time to absorb the interpretive information as you walk. If the mileage is a little bit short, simply join the Mossey Creek Trail for some additional trekking.

The Occoneechee Plantation once contained more than twenty rooms. Though the dwelling no longer stands, planted boxwoods, Osage oranges, and perennial flowers from that time period still thrive in the terraced garden.

Miles and Directions

0.0Start by leaving the boat ramp parking area on the Warriors Path Trail, paying homage to the Occoneechee Indians who once called this area home. Enter pine-cedar-oak woods. Head away from the lake, briefly passing through a small clearing.

0.1Leave left into woods. Come alongside serpentine Mossey Creek. Notice how deeply gullied the branch is. This was likely caused by erosive practices during the tobacco-growing days. Now, the banks are cloaked in moss, giving it a name, likely given by park personnel, as it is not indicated as such on official USGS maps.

0.2Cross Mossey Creek on a little wooden bridge. Immediately meet the Mossey Creek Nature Trail. Turn right and head up a tributary of Mossey Creek, another gullied stream, bordered by ferns and pawpaw.

0.3Bridge the gully you have been following and shortly come to a trail intersection and lone standing chimney surrounded by forest. The purpose of the structure attached to the building has been lost to time, but it likely served the main house in some form. Turn right, joining the Old Plantation Trail. Turn back down along the stream you just walked along. Note the abundance of sycamore trees.

0.5Pass the remnants of an old dam on Mossey Creek.

0.7Pass a spur trail leading right to state park Campground B. Continue straight on the Old Plantation Trail, in thick woods. Begin climbing the hill toward the plantation homesite.

0.8Reach the lower end of the terraced gardens of Occoneechee Plantation. Note the large cedar trees. Turn right here on the path and head up the terraces. Walk past plants old and new.

0.9Reach the plantation homesite. Stones outline the foundation. Interpretive information is scattered about. Stroll the auto-accessible site and ground before backtracking. Rejoin the Old Plantation Trail and soon pass the Crudup Cemetery, named for the last family to reside here.

1.1Return to the plantation site, then turn left, away from the road access and downhill. Immediately come to the old chimney. From here, backtrack on the Mossey Creek Nature Trail.

1.4Reach the trailhead and boat ramp parking area.

Old-Time Refrigeration

Along the way on the Occoneechee Plantation hike, you will pass two components of the plantation’s “refrigeration system,” representative of 1800s Virginia cold technology. Keeping things like milk and butter from quickly spoiling during the hot Southside Virginia summer months took a lot of planning and utilization of what nature provided. Here at Occoneechee Plantation they first built a dam on Mossey Creek. The low earthen structure is still visible along the Old Plantation Trail. Over time the main stream burst through the dam center, but it remains easy to find. After this small earthen dam was constructed, Mossey Creek backed up. During the winter months this small pond, around 4 feet deep, froze solid. After this freezing occurred, plantation workers, likely slaves in the early days, used saws to cut large blocks of ice and bring them to the icehouse located next to the plantation.

This icehouse was an elaborate affair. First, a deep conical pit was dug. Logs were laid in the pit to prevent the hole from caving in. A roof and small side walls were erected over the pit. After that the blocks of ice were laid into the pits, divided by alternating layers of natural material, either pine needles, which were in abundant supply in these woods, or sawdust or straw. The ice layer widened toward the top.

As the warm season wore on and the ice melted, a ladder was used to get deeper and deeper into the ice pit. With good planning and a little luck, and a not too terribly hot summer, the residents of Occoneechee Plantation could enjoy refrigerated foods until the following winter.