The Past is Catching Up to Us

The Gwaltney Frontier Farm is moving out of my imagination and taking big steps into becoming reality. To briefly recap, my earliest white ancestors came to Virginia in the 1600's. Since that time I have continuously had ancestors living within a fifty mile radius of my horse lots. Though less than fifty miles from the ocean, there was a time when our area represented the frontier of English colonization. When settlers arrived they did not build ante bellum mansions. Most were young, poor folks who hoped to become less poor in the Virginia.

In order to increase the scope of our educational programs we will re-create one of those efforts to become less poor. Over the next few years we will re-create a working version of the farm of a young, formerly indentured servant whose fondest dream is to become a yeoman farmer.

This will be the back drop for our efforts to promote the earliest horses of the colonial southeast, the Colonial Spanish Horse. It will be a nice frame for a beautiful picture. We will populate our patch of land with other rare, colonial breeds of live stock. All of the work and building will be done by me and my riders. This is not intended to be a tourist attraction. I hope, and expect that it will become a beautiful class room.

In short order we will have a non profit corporation set up to fund and perpetuate the Corolla offsite breeding program and to advance our educational programs. Yesterday, with shovel, post hole diggers and a bucket, Jacob and I dug a simple well of the type used in early Virginia. The well house will be the first project that my riders and I build on site.

At the moment we have an idea, a hole in the ground filled with water, and a colonial era goat.

And as it is so often said, After a man gets himself a goat, there simply is no stopping him.