Burke's Garden is an upland valley and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Tazewell County, Virginia Tazewell County () is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,429. Its county seat is Tazewell. Tazewell County is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA Micropolitan S ...

Geography and geology

The oval, bowl-like

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

(or "

cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

") is known for its fertile land and was once the bed of an ancient sea. About long and wide, it resembles a large

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an und ...

in satellite photographs and on topographic maps; however, it was formed when underground

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

caverns A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

collapsed. The mountain valley is the second-highest in Virginia at around above sea level and is completely surrounded by Garden Mountain. This unusual topography is similar to that of

Canaan Valley Canaan Valley () is a large bathtub-shaped upland valley in northeastern Tucker County, West Virginia, USA. Within it are extensive wetlands and the headwaters of the Blackwater River which spills out of the valley at Blackwater Falls. It is a w ...

in neighboring

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

History

The area was long occupied by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. Burke's Garden was first surveyed in 1748 by a team of surveyors working for local landowner James Patton. One of the party, James Burke an Irishman, is said to have thrown away some

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

peelings while cooking. A year later, when the party returned to the area, they found potatoes growing in the area where the peels had been left. The area was dubbed Burke's Garden as something of a joke, but the name stuck. In 1749,

William Ingles William Ingles (1729 – September, 1782), also spelled Inglis, Ingliss, Engels, or English, was a colonist and soldier in colonial Virginia. He participated in the Sandy Creek Expedition and was a signatory of the Fincastle Resolutions. He was ...

went to Burke's Garden to build a house with his uncle, John Ingles.Chalkley, L., Lockwood, M. S., Chalkley, L. ''Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia: extracted from the original court records of Augusta County, 1745-1800.'' Vol. 2. Rosslyn, VA: The Commonwealth Printing Co.
/ref> The community was an outpost of German immigrants who settled in the backcountry frontier in the late 18th century. an

an
''Accompanying map''
/ref> The area remained relatively isolated as it was not near the transportation corridors of major rivers. In the late 19th century, agents for the

Vanderbilt family The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

contacted local farmers about selling land so that the family could build a large estate there. Nobody wanted to sell, and the Vanderbilts instead constructed their Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina. In the 1990s, a small number of

Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churc ...

families moved to Burke's Garden, but later they moved out after being unable to purchase enough land and attract enough other Amish families to form a viable community. Today Amish have returned to Burkes Garden and have a thriving community. Lines of scooters can be seen daily outside the Burkes Garden School and Community Center where the Amish now have their own school. According to Chris Wesner of AmishAmerica there Amish community consisted of about 100 persons in 2021."The Amish in Virginia"
at YouTube The county's oldest church, the Central

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

church, is located in Burke's Garden. It originally served multiple denominations so was called Union Church. When the congregation learned their Union Church had joined the Lutheran denomination most members left and established Methodist and Presbyterian churches. In 1952, the community was terrorized by the " Varmint of Burke's Garden", a large coyote that killed many local

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

and caused much damage before being killed. The area is drained by Wolf Creek (a tributary of the New River) which flows out of the geographic bowl in a northeasterly direction. The entire valley is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as the Burke's Garden Rural Historic District; the Burke's Garden Central Church and Cemetery is also listed on the NRHP.

References

*Fenneman, Nevin M. (1938), ''Physiography of Eastern United States'', New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., pp 251, 254.

External links

Historical sites in Tazewell County
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Tazewell County, Virginia Valleys of Virginia Geography of Tazewell County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Tazewell County, Virginia Unincorporated communities in Virginia

Geography and geology

History

See also

References

External links