The deed finally recorded in December 19 and 170 acres that borders the New River in Grayson County, Virginia, is free of the threat of becoming any number of things that would blemish its continued existence as undeveloped and protected mountain land along one of America’s most splendid rivers.
I was privileged to participate in the Graysonn County / Osborne story by a coincidence of chance and intention.
Ann and I came in contact with the New River Valley Land Trust a few years back and got to know Beth O. So when she was approached about this piece of property to be featured on the upcoming interactive Landscope project by NatureServe, she mentioned my name to Kyle, the online project director. As it turns out, he had just seen my name on the Society of Environmental Journalists list serv offering my introduction to the group back in September.
So Kyle contacted me to see if I might be interested in a photographic assignment (well, a little!) and I made the trip down to Grayson twice with my new friend, Mary Bishop, who fashioned a wonderful account of the Osbornes–Buster, Bobby and Norma–with whom we had lunch in beautiful downtown Independence on our final trip down on a cold gray day in November when there was ice forming at the edges of river rocks (see the image above).
There is an account of the land transaction in the Roanoke Times (with a tiny picture of mine from the location) and Mary’s story is a really good read on the Landscope beta site; this link bypasses the map which will someday be a rich resource for exploring conservation land across the country. Soon, hopefully, my photographs will be available there to go along with Mary’s words and I’ll give you a heads-up when that happens.
Needless to say, though it was more light than heat, it was a thrill for me as freelance photograph to sign a contract that said National Geographic/NatureServe. I’m looking forward to participating in more projects in the months to come.
Follow the river as it flows north into West Virginia: view The New River Gorge Bridge.
WONDERFUL !!!
MARK
Fred: Is this the land on which Grayson County officials wanted a prison to be built?
It is indeed, though by the time Mr. Osbourne took out the load to purchase, there had already been so much opposition to it’s placement on the adjacent property that the penitentiary folks had moved on toward Independence for their site. But Buster Osborne (age 92 now) knew there would be others yet to want that land for tacky A-frames and such so he went ahead with the legalities that finalized two weeks ago.