Welcome to our Valley:
Lexington
Lexington and the southern Shenandoah Valley are a blessed respite in an unquiet world. Chosen by Robert E. Lee as the last home from which he could be an example for Peace after the war, his final resting place is in the Lee Chapel and museum at Washington and Lee University. Traveler, his favorite horse sleeps outside the door to his study, while his family rests in the memorar crypt next door.
His "good right hand"- Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson is not far away in the local cemetary where 75 or more other Confederate veterans also lie. One of the Shrines of the Confederacy, the troops still gather in January on Lee-Jackson day to honor these leaders with musket volleys and a cannon salute. Even resolute Yankees can feel the poinancy of the "Lost Cause" that tore apart a nation, sacrificed one in five Southern males and left a generation of women to raise families alone.
Anoither page of the long journal of war and reconcilliation is turned at the Virginia Military Institute Campus with the museum of Cadet life and the George C. Marshal Museum for the architect of European renewal following WWII
Buena Vista
Buena Vista, pronounced [bu-na vista with a long "u"], is located in Rockbridge County just six miles from Lexington and three miles from South River Highlands. The population was 6,349 at the 2000 census. However, locals know the real population as listed on a sign on a building downtown as "6002 happy citizens and 3 old grouches".
Buena Vista is home to Southern Virginia University. Only a few years old, enrollment is approaching 1000 full-time students. Left behind by the flow of history, battered by floods and economic changes, Buena Vista sleeps and is awakening as a cultural and business center. The site of much of the counties Industry, BV as many locals call it, offers many small town pleasures, and the areas most popular public golf course.
Rockbridge County
Rich in both natural history and human heritage, Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, the site of the America's first National Monument. The bridge, surveyed by George Washington, owned by Thomas Jefferson, was given to the country, and became the seed from which the National Park system would grow.
The county is the birthplace of Sam Houston, the only man to have ever been governor of two states - Tennessee and Texas. Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper near Steele's Tavern at the northern end of the county. Many of the governors, generals, artists and leaders of Virginia's early history grew up and were educated here.
Outdoor activities abound throughout the county, The James River provides wonderful warm water fishing and boating, with small mountain streams offering both stocked native trout fisheries. The gentle valley climate lets grape growers produce fine local wines. Whether you hand feed a giraffe, or explore a indian village, our caverns are not the only deep experience you'll have here.
