Finding A Future In The Past - Appomattox County

Of all the areas surrounding the independent city of Lynchburg, Appomattox County may have the most drawing power for Civil War Buffs. It has a heritage that no one else can claim. Emblazoned proudly on signs at the county line are the words Appomattox - Where Our Nation Reunited.

The signs invite a nation of tourists to unite again, revisiting the events of 1865, when Gen. Robert E. Lee handed his sword to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House.

In a way, Wilmer McLean has become a metaphor for Appomattox County's initial attitude toward its place in history. McLean was living near Manassas, Virginia when the First Battle of Bull Run broke out within a few miles of his front porch. Badly shaken he moved his family southeast to Appomattox, a place he felt the war would never reach. His assumption was one of the conflict's great ironies.

After the war, Appomattox also tried to escape its connection with the conflict. Feeling the stigma of living near what became known as the "surrender grounds," the people in the area wanted nothing more than to leave their epic defeat behind.

Today, however, the prevailing outlook has dramatically changed. The community is actively embracing its past. New ines of communication have formed between the town, county and federal overseers of the restored battlefield. More than a quarter of a million visitors, from North, South and even overseas, stop at the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park each year. and more out-of-towners are making their way a few miles south from the park into the thriving little town of Appomattox.

Appomattox is building a tourism infrastructure to augment its Civil War heritage. The county's 343 square miles sprawl across one of the main routes between Roanoke and Richmond, U.S. 460. As the once-dominant tobacco culture declines, the relatively flat land in Appomattox is increasingly available for residential, retail and industrial use.