In honor of Spring and Earth Day, RELIC is spotlighting Prince William Forest Park. This national park combines natural beauty and historical significance and is the largest protected nature reserve in the DMV area. Located in Triangle, VA near Dumfries, the park spans 15,000 acres, and is a natural reserve for many native species of plants, trees, birds, amphibians, and other types of wildlife.

Its historical significance and how this land became a national park on November 14, 1936, is a long story that began thousands of years ago. For Virginians, it started between the 17^th and 20^th centuries. According to the National Park Service, starting in the northwest corner of the park, a Poorhouse, a place for the unwanted, opened in 1794, and this type of housing operated until 1927.

This land also housed small communities and established places of refuge from a segregated society. According to the National Park Service and local historians, one of the communities was called Batestown. It was a Black community established in the park after the Civil War from 1865-1935, located in the Cabin Branch Creek area along what is now called Batestown Road on the eastern side of the park. It consisted of free Blacks and newly freed slaves and had a population of about 150 residents by the end of the 19^th century. There are descendants from the Bates family members and the Batestown community still living near the area.

These small communities had churches, schools, and small farmlands. A major source of income for these communities, both Black and white, was the Cabin Pyrite Mine. It was established in 1889 and shut down operations in 1920, leaving behind significant damage to the environment. It wasn’t until the 1990s that a restoration and reclamation program was established to deal with the environmental consequences left by the mine.

The history associated with this park is connected to significant hardships that impacted society throughout human history, such as the Civil War, the Jim Crow Era, the Great Depression, and WWll. This land was a place of refuge for nature and humans alike, and now it is being preserved and used as a place for people to enjoy and appreciate nature, wildlife, and outdoor recreation. There are many remnants of the park’s history throughout its thousands of acres where visitors can take the time to learn about its place in Prince William County’s history.



To learn more about Prince William Forest Park and its history, visit RELIC in April to view a display of historic site files, books, and maps.