Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

Looking for Virginia trivia? Try our list Virginia little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The Alpengeist rollercoaster climbs 195 feet and whips riders around six inversions at speeds up to 67 mph at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg (pop. 11,998).

first appeared: 1/16/2005

Elijah Reed, a New England ship captain, founded Reedville, at the mouth of the Potomac River in Northumberland County (pop. 12,259), in 1874 after building a factory there to process menhaden fish. The town remains a center for processing oil, fertilizer and meal from the catch.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

In the Blue Ridge Mountains, the 306-acre Shenandoah National Park includes 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail, which enters the park near Front Royal (pop. 13,589) and exits near Jarman Gap at Crozet (pop. 2,820), and then crosses parkland twice between Beagle Gap and Waynesboro.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

Poet-priest of the Confederacy, Father Abram Ryan was born in 1838 in Norfolk and is best known for his poem The Conquered Banner.

first appeared: 12/5/2004

Cape Charles (pop. 1,134) is headquarters for the Eastern Shore Railroad, which operates railway barges to transport rail cars across Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk.

first appeared: 11/21/2004

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949), born in Richmond, started dancing at age 6 on street corners to earn nickels and dimes, became a Vaudeville star, and appeared in 14 movies. His birthday, May 25, is commemorated as National Tap Dance Day.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

The building used by George Washington in 1755 and 1756 while supervising the construction of Fort Loudoun is preserved as George Washington’s Office Museum in Winchester (pop. 23,585).

first appeared: 10/24/2004

The Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial in Arlington’s Freedom Park honors 1,528 reporters, editors, photographers and broadcasters who were killed while on assignment.

first appeared: 10/10/2004

Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society, was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg (pop. 11,998).

first appeared: 10/3/2004

Paleontologists from the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville (pop. 15,416) discovered a whale species—Eobalaenoptera harrisoni—that lived 14 million years ago in a sea that covered what now is eastern Virginia. They named it after museum volunteer Carter Harrison.

first appeared: 9/19/2004

Begun in 1924 to welcome springtime, the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester (pop. 23,585) has blossomed into a six-day event. Celebrity parade marshals have included Bing Crosby and Willie Nelson.

first appeared: 9/12/2004

The Jeane Dixon Museum and Library in Strasburg (pop. 4,017) sheds light on the famous self-proclaimed psychic’s life and prophecies.

first appeared: 9/5/2004

George Washington’s pew is preserved at the 1773 Christ Church in Alexandria.

first appeared: 8/29/2004

Alexandria is named after Scotsman John Alexander, who paid for the townsite with 6,000 pounds of tobacco in 1669.

first appeared: 8/22/2004

The cell where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned after the Civil War is at Fort Monroe’s Casemate Museum in Hampton.

first appeared: 8/15/2004

Since 1949, the Moonlite Drive-in in Abingdon (pop. 7,780) has shown Hollywood stars under the stars.

first appeared: 8/8/2004

The 1809 Aldie Mill in Loudoun County is the state’s only gristmill powered by twin overshot water wheels.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

In the 1960s, folklorist Alan Jabbour recorded 185 performances of Henry Reed, a legendary fiddler in Glen Lyn (pop. 151). Born in 1884, Reed knew hundreds of frontier- and Civil War-era fiddle tunes.

first appeared: 7/25/2004

The 1785 Burwell-Morgan Mill in Millwood is one of the state’s oldest operable gristmills.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

Marion Harland, born in 1830 in Dennisville, published the 1871 best-selling cookbook Common Sense in the Household.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

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