User:Gadget850/Shenandoah Acres

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Shenandoah Acres was a resort in Stuarts Draft, Virginia that billed itself as "America's Finest Inland Beach." The Acres closed in 2004 and was subsequently purchased by the Eavers, a local business family.

The most visible aspect of Shenandoah Acres was its small, spring-fed lake that was unique for its use of playground equipment in the water. Shenandoah Acres also featured 250 camp sites, 35 cabins, horseback riding, miniature golf, and tennis courts.^[1]

[edit] History

Originally, Shenandoah Acres was a farm consisting of orchards, and a cranberry bog encircling a small pond. The cranberry bog was well known by botanists as a location for several rare plants and orchids including the rose pogonia and grass pink orchids. In the journal Claytonia, the botanist Lloyd Carr described the pond as a sea of pink when the orchids were in bloom. The cranberry bog was one of a series of sinkhole ponds and wetlands in the Maple Flats area; perhaps the only one remaining with a similar flora is Spring Pond. After the bog was destroyed to create Shenandoah Acres, many of the rare species once found there are now locally extinct.

Dr. William Dodge charged visitors ten cents to swim and picnic on his property in the 1930's. The property was purchased by the Blacka family in 1935. ^[2]

[edit] References