Thursday, May 21, 2009

Urban Wilderness

Great Hiking inside Staunton City Limits

Betsy Bell
Hiking Trail in Betsy Bell Park.

SWAC Girl Jogged My Memory [click to read] of a particularly fine wilderness area in the midst of our town. Betsy Bell Park [click to read] is a great place to get in a short hike when you can't get away to the big ridges.

Charles Catlett donated the fifty acre mountain park to the City in 1941 with the stipulation:"The City of Staunton shall as far as is reasonably practicable and in its considered opinion advisable, and for the common benefit of its citizens and inhabitants, keep and maintain the crest of the mountain as a perpetual memorial..." of events in the past life of the community and in memory of its citizens who have given their lives in protecting the nation.

Catlett left instructions that the site be maintained in its natural state and a "cross" cut out of the woods visible from the Valley below be maintained.

Shhh, please don't tell the ACLU about that cross. I love it.

Betsy Bell
The Cross cut out of the forest on Betsy Bell Mountain. It is there as a memorial to those who have given their lives in defense of this Nation.

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