After a breakfast of ham, eggs and hashbrowns and some tidying up we went exploring. Drove south to the town of Gretna, very small, and then turned north through many other small towns along the way. As we passed thru Hurt, VA, we saw this:
This industrial site was enormous. After a bit of Googling, I found out that is was the site of the old Klopman Mills property. Klopman Mills employed about 1,300 people at its peak and closed in 2007. The company opened in the 1940s but was sold in the 1950s to Burlington Industries. The plant dyed and sold cloth. I am sure this small town was devastated by this closure. But, there is good news. Announced in 2016 this property will become an industrial park. Southern Virginia Multimodal Park. Best of luck to this community and the developing of this park.
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| That orange dot is me. |
After exploring the abandoned industrial park we drove on into Lynchburg. We walked along the Blackwater Creek Trail and the Riverwalk. This part of Lynchburg look very up and coming with old buildings becoming condos and apartments and many shops and restaurants.
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| Walking, biking, rowing, and skating. |
Along the Riverwalk:
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| This is an air handling unit disguised as a school bus. |
Next, we went toThe Old City Cemetery. From their brochure: The Old City Cemetery, established in 1806, is one the oldest public cemeteries in the United States that has been in continuous use since its founding. Nearly 20,000 people are buried here--most before 1925--including political, religious, social, and cultural leaders, the city's indigent and "strangers," veterans of every major American war and conflict from the Revolution to Vietnam, and over 2,200 Confederate soldiers from fourteen states. Three-quarters of those buried here are African American, both free and enslaved. More than one-third are infants and children under the age of four.
There are several museums throughout the cemetery, the Pest House, Medical Museum, the Hearse House and Caretakers' Museum, Station House Museum and a Chapel.
A little shopping and back to the RV for dinner and a quiet evening.
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