BAREFOOT BEACHCOMBING

Camping - Occoneechee State Park - Clarksville, Virginia - June 2022

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I spent a week at Occoneechee State Park in Clarksville, Virginia. It is on the John H. Kerr Reservoir on the Virginia/North Carolina border. In Virginia (in accordance with state law), this lake is called Buggs Island Lake and is part of the Staunton (Roanoke) River. It's Virginia's largest lake by a wide margin. The park is about 3 hours away from Hampton Roads. It has 48 campsites in three loops. I stayed in space C30 which is a gravel, back-in site right on the lake. (You can see the specific details about the site below.) All the RV sites have water and electric hookups at the site. And the park has a dump station on the entrance road. The park also has non-electric sites suitable for tent camping. I had originally had a reservation for this park in May of 2020. At the beginning of the pandemic, all the the Virginia State Park campgrounds were shut down for 2 months, so that reservation got cancelled.

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Occoneechee State park is HUGE. It's 2,698 acres and  Buggs Island Lake covers over 48,000 acres. The park is adjacent to the Occoneechee Marina which has boat ramps to access the lake. There is also a smaller boat ramp inside the park providing additional access. The park has 3 miles of hiking trails. There are also equestrian amenities in the park including an equestrian specific campground and equestrian trails. The park is named for the Occaneechi Indians who were unfortunately attacked by militia during Bacon's Rebellion and decimated.

 

www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/occoneechee

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I had beautiful views of the lake from my campsite although the water itself was not accessible from the site due to the steepness of the banks. I had most of this section of the campground to myself for most of the week. I did have some squirrel visitors to my site. I didn't share my pistachios with them, but I did allow them to drink the slightly dripping water from the water spigot. ;) I decorated the campsite with some of the beautiful flowers from Julie's bridal shower (which was the day before I left for my trip).

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In addition to spending time in the park,I visited a number of local attractions including 2 other Virginia State Parks (which brings my total to 20 Virginia State Parks visited).

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The lake is a man-made impoundment as the result of the John H. Kerr Dam. So of course, I had to visit the dam which is operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The dam and reservoir were constructed in the 1950s primarily to provide for flood control and hydro-electric power generation. The dam produces 426 gigawatt hours of electricity annually. The lake's 900 miles of wooded shoreline stretch across three counties in Virginia and three in North Carolina.

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I visited a really cool small museum garden called MacCallum More Garden. It was started by MacCallum More is apparently Scottish for “Home of the Clan” and was named by Mrs. Hudgins

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Original Randolph-Macon College

 

Boydton Plank Road Historic Landmark

The Boydton and Petersburg Plank Road, built between 1851 and 1853, was the first all-weather route connecting Southside Virginia's tobacco and wheat farms with the market. Pine and oak planks, 8 feet long, 1 foot  wide and 3 to 4 inches thick were laid across paralleled beams slanted toward a ditch. The road boosted crop revenues 30 to 100 percent. Along the approximately 73 miles, there were 7 toll houses and keepers. Stagecoaches drove the 73 miles Monday through Saturday, stopping every 11 miles for food and fresh teams. Condemned by 1860, it nonetheless provided an important route for troop movements during the Civil War. Another continuous hard-surface link would not exist until 1930s. Parts of some highways, including U.S. 1, follow the old roadbed, and Petersburg still has a thoroughfare called Boydton Plank Road. A ten-mile [16 km] extension to the Roanoke River at Clarksville was completed in 1856. Boydton Plank Road was mentioned numerous times in Robert E. Lee's dispatches to President Jefferson Davis and Secretary of War John C. Breckenridge during the last days the Confederate Army was in Petersburg during the final days of the Civil War

 

Whittle's Mill is the site of an old 18th Century grist mill along the Meherrin River. Recent restoration of the site has heightened interest in the Meherrin River. There is a water trail that can be accessed from the site both above and below the dam.

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MacCallum Moore Museum https://www.mmmg.org/

 

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