I'm told that many, many Page County residents were at the fireworks last night along the Hawksbill Greenway. So many in fact, I see a Facebook post that said, "Is everybody who lives in Page County here?" Mary and I didn't join them, but we drove past at 6pm and the area around the Farmers Market downtown was definitely filling up.
Earlier in the day, I had taken Tessie for a walk along a part of the Greenway - we saw a lot of folks out enjoying this wonderful resource. It even inspired me to do a little web search this morning, and I found the link to the Hawksbill Greenway Foundation, which supports the enhancement and long-term care of the park.
http://www.hawksbillgreenway.org/
Now, I've opened the post with a photo by O. Winston Link - it's a famous shot of some folks out for a summer swim in Hawksbill Creek, along with some other notable landmarks, such as the Bus 211 overpass and the (now) Norfolk Southern bridge with an engine there. (No copyright infringement is intended. I have a copy of this photo on my office wall, procured from the Link Museum in Roanoke:
http://www.linkmuseum.org/ .)
This year, all summer long, so far, I've been seeing a similar scene in the creek. But the swimming hole has now been moved upstream and slightly around the bend, although the trestle is still visible from the new spot. They've got a rope swing there, and as we walked by a bunch of kids were having a good time.
There are a couple of other attractions in this area of the pathway, basically Phase III of the project (there were four so far, and the trail was completed in 2009). There is a bridge that crosses the stream here, with a park that features an old millstone; there are also quite a few little stone ledges that create cascades and eddies in the stream.
And that's what makes the stream attractive for another reason: fishing. It's a stocked trout stream, a program that takes pace from October to June every year. Those summer flows get low, however, so when the stream is warm, I guess the trout are gone. Other game fish are bluegill and small mouth bass. This mural under the Bus 211 overpass highlights some of the species; I saw a family doing some casting nearby, I'm guessing for bluegill or some sunfish...the young girls were bored though and wanted to move on, maybe to the river.
5 comments:
Do you know the name given to the swimming hole in the picture with the white swimmers and the train going over the trestle?
Hey there Posumcop!
I do not know the name of that swimming hole. That's very interesting. Do I have the location right, that the current swimming hole is a bit upstream and south of the one in the photo?
Also, from the comment I assume that there was another, segregated swimming hole, too...do you have any info on that as well?
And by the way, haven't made it to a Wranglers game yet, but I will soon!
Cabin Jim
Yes there was a segregated swimming hole just downstream from the one in the picture...but not that far downstream. It is the swimming hole where the rope swing currently hangs from the tree along the Greenway. The locals called it "the nigger hole." They have a similar name for the section of Luray on Main Street where most of the African American population resides...it is referred to as "nigger hill." Not pretty names but just an odd old history lesson.
The Wranglers are starting to make a move in the standings !!
Not a pretty name at all, and also a reference to an unfortunate time in our history.
But you didn't say the name of the swimming hole in the Link photo.
That spot was simply known as the “Hawksbill Creek Swimming-Hole." It’s August of
1956. (Photo by O. Winston Link.)
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