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This restored rock road sign on the side of Howard P. Anderson Road in the rural Halifax County community of Crystal Hill is believed to be more than 200 years old.
Archaeologists with the Virginia Department of Transportation excavate the pieces of a rock road sign embedded under the roots of a large tree on Howard P. Anderson Road in the Crystal Hill community. The rock road sign on Crystal Hill native Bill Crews’ property is believed to date back to the era of President George Washington.
This restored rock road sign on the side of Howard P. Anderson Road in the rural Halifax County community of Crystal Hill is believed to be more than 200 years old.
A restored rock road sign in the rural Halifax County community of Crystal Hill dates back to a time in the nation’s history unrecognizable to today’s traveler.
A time before odometers in automobiles ticked off the number of miles traveled.
A time before highways were dotted with modern green road signs with bright white lettering revealing the number of miles to one’s next destination.
In the days when the lettering was first etched into the rock sign along modern-day Howard P. Anderson Road, the directions guided travelers on horseback or on foot to the next stop in their journey.
The lettering on the rock road sign on Crystal Hill native Bill Crews’ property is barely legible today. But in the nation’s early days when the first president of the United States George Washington traversed the roads of Halifax County, the sign prominently read “The Right/ To Coles Fery/ 11 Miles/ The Left to/ Barksdales Store/ 6 Ms.”
“There are other rock signs in Halifax County, but this appears to be the most ancient from the extreme weathering and crudeness of its designs. All the others seem not to be weathered as bad,” Crews shared.
Randy Lichtenberger, an archaeologist with the western region of the Virginia Department of Transportation, who worked on the process of restoring the historical road sign, added, “These rock road signs are so rare. There are very few documented in the state of Virginia that are remaining. It has been determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.”
Lichtenberger added that one of the places where the rock road sign was directing travelers — Barksdales Store — no longer exists.
“It’s now present-day Catawba. It was a crossroads,” Crews shared. “It gives age verification to the sign.”
The process of studying and restoring the rock sign came about when the Virginia Department of Transportation started working on a project to re-align the curve in that part of Howard P. Anderson Road (Route 626) in 2018.
“They needed to widen the road, to help with drainage, which was a problem in that area. The rock impeded the project,” Crews explained.
Lichtenberger explained the rock had been broken into five pieces and all five pieces had to be reunited.
That proved to be a challenge.
He said he and his crew spent “an hour with chainsaws” before getting to the original piece of rock buried under the roots of the tree.
“We had to remove the rock sign out of the way for our project so we wouldn’t damage it any further,” Lichtenberger further explained. “Its original location was under the roots of a large tree which had grown up around it. It had been hit once by a car a long time ago, breaking off a piece of the rock, and had been hit by a car again at a later time, breaking off another piece of the rock. Somebody propped up the top piece of it against the tree. The original piece was lost below ground.”
Once all the pieces of the rock road sign were reunited and restored, in April of this year, the archaeologists relocated it only a short distance from its original location next to the highway. Lichtenberger explained if the road sign was moved a great distance from its original location, it could make it ineligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Archaeologists with the Virginia Department of Transportation excavate the pieces of a rock road sign embedded under the roots of a large tree on Howard P. Anderson Road in the Crystal Hill community. The rock road sign on Crystal Hill native Bill Crews’ property is believed to date back to the era of President George Washington.
Submitted photo
The road sign now sits about 20 feet west of its original location, and stands about 5 feet tall, although the majority of it is underground, Crews related.
In order to fortify the rock road sign, a platform was built, made of a retaining wall base with soil inside, to protect and support the lower sections of the stone. Above that, the rest of the rock is held in place with a cage made of stainless steel. The cage was constructed by skilled metalworker Richard Hughes, who is also the Kentuck superintendent for VDOT.
Once the rock sign was freed from the ground, only a few letters were legible. Research scientist Ann Miller with the Virginia Transportation Research Council led the charge to decipher the message on the 200-plus-year-old road sign. Lichtenberger explained the researchers were able to use laser scans with lighting at a very low angle to read the original lettering chiseled into the rock.
Prior to the restoration project, the casual observer would not have been able to tell the slab of rock laying up against the tree was a road sign, because the letters were undecipherable for the most part. But Crews had had a curiosity about the slab of rock since his childhood.
While riding the school bus in the area of the rock sign in the early 1960s, Crews recalled seeing a wreck in which the car was turned upside down. That wreck broke off a piece of the rock, Crews related. Crews later learned in the archaeologist’s report that the rock had been broken several times.
“I knew that rock had historical significance,” Crews related. “I’ve always been a student of history and I like to see historical things maintained.”
Crews delved into the history of the area, and later acquired the property on which the rock road sign was situated. He learned that in June 1791, George Washington reportedly had his breakfast in Crystal Hill and stayed at Cole’s Ferry just due north of Crystal Hill while on a tour of the Southern states.
According to an Old Halifax website, the purpose of George Washington’s journey was “to acquire knowledge of the face of the country, the growth and agriculture thereof, and the temper and dispositions of the inhabitants towards the new government.”
Along with guiding George Washington in his journeys, the rock sign also guided travelers at other significant times in the nation’s history.
Crews explained one of the indications on the sign is to the left, Barksdales Store, and Company H (Catawba Troop) of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry mustered at Barksdales Store. That was in 1861, the very beginning of the Civil War.
Gen. Nathanael Greene’s army also camped in the Crystal Hill area in Feb. 17, 1781, Crews said. At that time, the now-sleepy community of Crystal Hill was in its heyday, as the county seat. The Halifax County Courthouse was located in Crystal Hill from 1766 until 1792, Crews related.
Today, the rock sign harkens stands as a testament to those times throughout history, when an army of men passed by on their journeys, and when the first president of the United States read the sign in his travels. Just beyond the rock road sign is Old School Road, which years ago was called “Catawba Road.” Crews pointed up the road, remembering the time when a two-room schoolhouse stood just beyond the grove of trees, and children walked down that road on the way to school.
Crews is pleased the rock road sign has been restored, and a piece of the history of his hometown of Crystal Hill has been preserved so it is never forgotten.
