A Region of Gloom

A Region of Gloom (HM1SY)

Location: Spotsylvania, VA 22553 Spotsylvania County
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Country: United States of America
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N 38° 17.334', W 77° 38.881'

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Inscription
From the time of its earliest settlement, this region was known as "The Wilderness of Spotsylvania" because of its dense thickets and poor soil. Locals called the countryside just west of the Wilderness "The Poison Fields." High concentrations of iron and other minerals (including gold) in the soil made for poor growing conditions, scrawny trees dominated here. The iron industry rendered the landscape even more forbidding. The rich mineral content of the soil spawned mines and iron furnaces as early as 1718. Those furnaces (like Catharine Furnace, in front of you) required vast amounts of charcoal, which in turn demanded that huge swaths of timber be cut for fuel. The cutting operations which continued for decades, left behind a landscape engulfed by newly emerging pines, stunted oaks, vines, thorn bushes, and honeysuckle — "a wilderness in the most forbidding sense of the word," wrote one officer.
Details
HM NumberHM1SY
Tags
Placed ByFredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 at 4:39am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18S E 268406 N 4241187
Decimal Degrees38.28890000, -77.64801667
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 38° 17.334', W 77° 38.881'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds38° 17' 20.04" N, 77° 38' 52.86" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)540
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 11670-11698 Jackson Trail E, Spotsylvania VA 22553, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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