Fairy Stone State Park, located in

Patrick County, Virginia Patrick County is a county located on the central southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,608. Its county seat is Stuart. It is located within both the rolling hills and valleys of the Pie ...

, is the largest of the original six state parks that opened on June 15, 1936, and is home to the mysterious "fairy stones", or

staurolite Staurolite is a reddish brown to black, mostly opaque, nesosilicate mineral with a white streak. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, has a Mohs hardness of 7 to 7.5 and the chemical formula: Fe2+2Al9O6(SiO4)4(O,OH)2. Magnesium, zinc ...

. The stone, prevalent in the region, may have the St. Andrew's or Roman shape.Moore, C.H. Jr., 1937. The staurolite area of Patrick and Henry counties, Virginia. The American Mineralogist 22(9), 990−996. The park's land was donated in 1933 by Junius B. Fishburn, former president of the Southwest Virginia Trust Co. and former owner of the ''

Roanoke Times ''The Roanoke Times'' is the primary newspaper in Southwestern Virginia and is based in Roanoke, Virginia, United States. It is published by Lee Enterprises. In addition to its headquarters in Roanoke, it maintains a bureau in Christiansburg, ...

''. The park is , making it the largest of the six original parks and one of the largest to this day. Some of the park's features, including its lake and many structures still in use, were built by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

References

External links

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Fairy Stone State Park Web Site

Fairy Stone State Park in World Database on Protected Areas
Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia State parks of Virginia Parks in Patrick County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Henry County, Virginia Civilian Conservation Corps in Virginia Protected areas established in 1936 1936 establishments in Virginia {{HenryCountyVA-NRHP-stub