An influential preservation coalition assembled near a crossroads of history Wednesday morning to announce the Civil War Wilderness Battlefield is back on the list of America’s “11 Most Endangered Historic Places.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation approved the designation due to the massive Wilderness Crossing development envisioned, over the next 40 years, on more than 2,500 acres at the junction of Constitution Highway and Germanna Highway, in eastern Orange County.
Speakers representing 11 organizations, known as the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, offered support of the endangered listing and opposition to the development at the location. With chickens crowing from a nearby barn, remarks were made from a stage at Wilderness Run Vineyards, located on State Route 3, just east of the State Route 20 junction.
Wilderness Battlefield is one of four included in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, part of the National Park Service.
People are also reading…
The National Trust is a galvanizing force for preservation of the country’s historic assets, said James Linberg, senior policy director for the Washington nonprofit. The organization has listed 350 endangered sites since 1988 and only a handful have been lost, he said.
“We stand with our allies seeking to protect the Wilderness Battlefield from development,” said Linberg.
Allowing developers to build Wilderness Crossing with its thousands of new houses, commercial buildings and data centers threatens the area’s history, environment, natural resources and quality of life, according to the coalition.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning of the land last year. Within weeks, preservation groups, including American Battlefield Trust, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield and Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, filed suit against the county and developer seeking to block the project. It remains in litigation.
The developer says Wilderness Crossing will bring more than $300 million in cumulative net-positive revenue over the next 40 years to the county, according to earlier reports. Rezoning approval also came with $24 million in cash proffers to Orange County, for mitigating growth impacts.
The developers could not immediately be reached for comment regarding the day’s announcement or a timeline for the project.
Crystal Hale, the new representative for the Wilderness area on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, was not yet on the board for last April’s rezoning vote approving the large project.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Hale said she was familiar with the planned project in her district. She declined to comment on it due to ongoing litigation.
Asked about the battlefield being named to the most endangered list in America, the supervisor said she was very proud of her whole district.
“I love all of Orange County and am here to do what is best for all of Orange County,” she said.
Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, retired, U.S. Marines, represented the American Battlefield Trust at Wednesday’s program. The Trust has saved over 58,000 acres of battlefield across the country, he said. “Where men and women gave their blood to build this country.”
Wilderness Crossing will have a massive impact on the historic Wilderness as well as the national military park it is part of, he added.
“We ask for your support.”
The day’s endangered designation is not an honor, Mills said, but necessary.
“We wish it didn’t have to happen,” he said.
Mills referenced Union Gen. Ulysses Grant’s experience at the Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5-7, 1864.
Suffering horrific casualties, with nearly 18,000 killed, wounded or captured in 48 hours, the future president wrote to President Abraham Lincoln, “I intend to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.”
“Like Grant we intend to fight it out here until a successful conclusion,” Mills said.
“In response, Lincoln told Grant, ‘Hold on with a bulldog’s grip,’” according to a coalition release sent out early Wednesday.
Friends of Wilderness Battlefield President Bob Lookabill said the Wilderness-Germanna area spans 70-square miles in eastern Orange and western Spotsylvania counties, partially bounded by the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers.
Existing forest is second-growth timber, said Lookabill, speaking of how Wilderness got it name. Original growth was clear-cut for tobacco and iron mines in colonial times. The growth that came in behind it was dense with thick underbrush and briars, he added.
“Adding a military operation to that scenario you can see the issue that would cause.”
Lookabill said there are numerous abandoned gold mines, some 300 feet deep, on the acreage, calling them industrial waste sites now. Thousands fell all around the Wilderness, he added, saying it’s hallowed ground.
“It’s going to make visiting this area much more difficult,” he said of traffic concerns with Wilderness Crossing.
This is the second time the battlefield made the national most endangered list. It was first listed in 2010 when Walmart proposed to build nearby, but eventually agreed to move the site farther from the battlefield to Locust Grove. Walmart then donated the original land, 50 acres, to the state and it’s in permanent conservation easement, said Lookabill.
“We need similar restrictions on the Wilderness Crossing area,” he said.
Elizabeth Kostelny, CEO of Preservation Virginia, spoke of an explosion of data center developments impacting battlefields across the state. In that, she included data centers approved adjacent to Culpeper National Cemetery and in Stevensburg, overlooking the future Battlefields State Park.
“Today’s announcement should be a rallying call to resolve these threats and protect these vital historic and cultural places,” she said.
Approving data centers next to historic sites is “a huge step backwards,” said Chris Miller with Piedmont Environmental Council, another coalition member. It’s a rapid step towards industrialization and away from protection of historic and natural resources, he said.
“We know how to do something better,” Miller said.
Kyle Hart with the National Parks Conservation Association, added his voice, saying they are “deeply concerned” that Wilderness is once again on the most endangered list. Wilderness Crossing is a threat that “throws decades of conservation work out the window,” he said.
Hart added, “It’s emblematic of a crisis across Virginia — an explosion of unchecked data centers. It’s the biggest threat the region has ever seen.”
Other coalition partners are Cedar Mountain Battlefield Foundation, Historic Germanna, Journey Through Hallowed Ground and Preservation Virginia.
“We are not against development and know progress and preservation need not be mutually exclusive. We are grateful to the National Trust for drawing attention to the danger,” said David Duncan, president of the American Battlefield Trust, in a statement.
A 2023 report from Mangum Economics, on behalf of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, estimated the ripple effects data centers create as their expenditures, on operations and new construction, influence the state’s economy. The study estimated data centers supported 45,460 jobs and $15.3 billion in economic output in Virginia in 2021.