Photographer offers sneak peak at ‘Hallowed Ground’ images

By Allison Brophy Champion/Media General News Service
Published: March 9, 2008

WARRENTON—It took three years and 21,000 pictures for National Geographic photographer Ken Garrett to capture the range of natural beauty and rich heritage along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground.

Even that staggering effort does not tell the whole story of the region where America was born and where many died in defense of it. But it’s a good start.

From the earliest Native American settlements to the French and Indian War to the Revolution to the War of 1812 to the Civil War, America happened along the Journey, a 175-mile route that starts at Gettysburg continues through Maryland, meanders through Culpeper, Madison and Orange before ending at Monticello in Albemarle County.

“That’s just the beginning of the story,“ said Cate Wyatt, president of JTHG, a nonprofit group that formed three years ago to raise awareness of the region, much of which is situated in the Virginia Piedmont.

“Because when you think about the citizens who lived in these communities who had to nurse loved ones back to health and bury their dead and rebuild their broke down villages and towns completely from scratch. We have to honor those Americans and learn and be inspired by what they each personally did to create this country.“

It was this urgency to inspire preservation of a landscape ever threatened by development that prompted Garrett, a Fauquier County resident, to lend his pictorial expertise to, “The Journey Through Hallowed Ground: Birthplace of the American Ideal,“ a National Geographic book that will be officially unveiled May 1 at Montpelier.

“If you see the real history of this region you can say, hey, we’ve got something important. We need to make sure we don’t lose 4it before it’s too late,“ he said.

It wasn’t just the wars they waged that made the region significant.

“But all of the great ideas that are the covenants of America,“ Garrett said. “The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights—they all came from here. This is the land where the leaders decided this is what the new world should look like and this is the land where it was all torn apart.“

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground looks blue, gray and green through his camera lens and the resulting images are stunning in fog and sunlight.

Garrett shared the first public preview of his three-year photo shoot during an hour-long talk and picture show Tuesday at the historic St. James Episcopal Church. The Warrenton Antiquarian Society hosted the special event at its annual open meeting. More than 100 people attended.

“He’s such a notable photographer,“ said Linda Bell, president of the Society, whose sole purpose is to preserve Weston, a 19th century farmstead in Fauquier. “And we consider Weston a part of that trip through Hallowed Ground.“

Part photographer, part preservationist and part historian, Garrett spoke with knowledge about the numerous sites along the Journey, sharing compelling stories about the people and places.

Many of his images looked familiar including, Culpeper’s Civil War battlefields at Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain, Barboursville Vineyards in Orange County, the Rappahannock River, presidential homes at Monticello and Montpelier, Rappahannock’s Inn at Little Wash-ington, the Exchange Hotel in Gordonsville and The Inn at Meander Plantation in Madison, about which Garrett shared some pre-presidential history.

Thomas Jefferson’s father surveyed the land around the Inn for Joshua Fry, the U.S. com-mander of the French and Indian War, Garrett said. Fry died in the 18th century conflict and George Washington succeeded him as commander. But before taking over, the man who would later become the first American president made a stop in Madison.

“He came back to this house and took care of the family for a month after the death of Joshua Fry,“ Garrett said.

He also delved into the African-American history contained along the Journey with photos of the Gilmore Cabin at Montpelier. Here, George Gilmore, a newly freed slave built a life.

“He was born to James Madison in 1810, he was freed after the Civil War and he built this cabin and raised five children in it,“ Garrett said.

By the year 2000, the small cabin was almost completely in ruins and about to be destroyed. That’s when Rebecca Gilmore Coleman, a descendant whose father was born in the house, started a foundation and raised money to restore it.

Today, the once-rundown cabin is an official part of Montpelier.

“Here’s the upstairs bedroom,“ Garrett said, showing a slide of an extremely small room. “Five children in one bedroom. It’s so cute when you go there you just want to move in. Of course, they told me it’s a little chilly and drafty in the winter so you might want to rethink that.“

Moving on, he shared a story and photograph of a house Thomas Jefferson designed for William Madison, James Madison’s brother. Today, the dwelling, which had a floor plan very similar to Montpelier, is the headmaster’s house at Woodberry Forest, a boys’ boarding school along U.S. 15 in Madison, Garrett said.

His presentation even included images from a tractor pull at the Madison County Fair.

“These are the real people, the real people of the land—Madison County farmers,“ Garrett said.

The Graffiti House in Culpeper, the Holladay House in Orange, a line of horseback riders bisecting a field in Rappahannock County, strawberry fields and Main Street communities—“The Journey Through Hallowed Ground: Birthplace of the American Ideal” features it all.

“What we want to do is save this region,“ Garrett said. “That’s all part of my goal: to raise awareness.“

The National Geographic book, also, is about sharing the history of these United States, said Wyatt.

“This is the stories of the people who lived along this corridor whose ideals are what built this country,“ she said. “It’s an astonishing story.“

The new hardcover book will sell for about $40 and will go on the market through National

Geographic in June.

Allison Brophy Champion is a reporter at the Culpeper Star-Exponent. She can be reached .