Blue Ridge Country January/February 2022 - 26

MOUNTAIN
GEORGE WASHINGTON
PUT IT THERE FIRST
White Post in
the Middle of
the Road
The tiny Virginia village of White
Post has a historic claim to fame,
that people keep knocking over.
Text and present-day photo by JILL DEVINE
T
26 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
he officer who responded to the
accident in White Post, Virginia,
must have been new to the area.
He pulled up to the intersection
of Berry's Ferry and White Post
Roads, where locals were gathering,
and he began to fill out a
report. Noting the damage to the vehicle,
he gazed at the splintered 11-foot wooden
street post and asked who put it in the
middle of the road in the first place.
" Actually, it was George Washington, "
answered Billy Thompson, who
owns a repair shop across the street.
" The officer's face went blank, but then
he shrugged and just finished the report, "
laughs Thompson, whose family
has been repairing the post for about 70
years.
The accident was just one in a long
history of collisions. And, yes, all fingers
point to 17-year-old surveyor George
Washington as the one most likely to
have planted the marker there more than
270 years ago for a family friend and
mentor, Lord Thomas Fairfax.
Wood markers had to be tall enough
to be spotted on horseback. This particular
post, placed at the edge of developing
wilderness, directed travelers wanting to
lease or buy land to Fairfax's office on
Greenway Court.
The post preceded the village for

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Blue Ridge Country January/February 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country January/February 2022

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