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BELMONT TRAIL FULFILLS WISH SEED OF AN IDEA: Corinne Melchers, in a Sept. 15, 1943, letter to Tom Colt, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond: "My initial thought, which I feel would be an excellent one to carry out when I am gone, is as follows: to create paths along the streams and through the glens, starting in Falmouth and finally leading one to the Warrenton Road a half mile distant. This would provide a much needed opportunity for a short promenade in the woods, which are very beautiful indeed. I very much count on the pleasure the public will derive from the Melchers Memorial as a park, as well as a shrine for Gari's pictures and a gallery for contemporary art." WANT TO GO?

April 19, 2008 12:15 am

By CLINT SCHEMMER

AS IF TO complement the other glories of springtime, Belmont has sprouted a new feature for all to enjoy.

Gari Melchers Home and Studio in southern Stafford County now boasts a nature trail that surely ranks among the region's loveliest.

The fruit of many years' hard work, the trail offers visitors a different perspective on this National Historic Landmark. Walking the 1-mile circuit allows one to better appreciate the 18th-century estate's scenic beauty and farming past as did its last private owners, Impressionist artist Gari Melchers and his wife, Corinne.

The public's early reaction to the trail "has been great," said Beate Jensen, Belmont's grounds preservation supervisor. "There's been a wonderful response people really love it. And that's the whole goal."

Jensen said the project began nine years ago after she first spotted an overgrown, half-hidden trail on the brow of the hill below Belmont's summer house. Then she came across a letter the artist's widow had written a friend in 1943 about her wishes for the property once she gave it to the commonwealth of Virginia.

Corinne Melchers expressed hope that, after her death, someone would "create paths along the streams and through the glens, starting in Falmouth and finally leading one to the Warrenton Road a half mile distant."

Jensen quickly determined to fulfill her wish.

"When I read that it was like, all right, this is what you have to do. She clearly lays out what she wants us to do," she recalled. "But when I arrived here in 1999, the woods were not beautiful anymore. You could literally not walk through them, because of the natural progression of plants there. They had all the invasive species you could think."

Hard work ahead

Virginia cedars massed on the summerhouse hill down to the river, hiding the Rappahannock from view and muffling the sounds of Falmouth's rapids. Nearby, privet, greenbrier and honeysuckle choked the woods in the little valley along Falls Run.

Jensen cleared the cedars, planted fragrant, low-growing sumac to anchor the slope, and uncovered the hillside steps and path the Melcherses had built in 1931. The steps, trail and a terraced garden bed were restored. Inmates from the state prison in central Stafford assisted in the effort, which opened up a magnificent view of the river's rapids, frequented by blue herons and bald eagles who fish the spot.

On the other side of the 26-acre Belmont tract, in two fields near Washington Street, Jensen--in cooperation with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries--planted native grasses and flowering meadow plants, including black-eyed Susan, monarda and rattlesnake master, to create wildlife habitat and a more naturalistic landscape, greatly reducing the need to mow several times a year. Now the area is a haven for butterflies, deer, foxes and lots of birds, including two pairs of nesting hawks.

Visitors appreciate the transformation, which has started some to thinking about Americans' obsession with labor-intensive lawns, Belmont's grounds supervisor said.

At the base of the summerhouse hill, Jensen decided to extend the Melcherses' path upstream along Falls Run, planting some bulbs, hellebores and native plants along the way.

First, though, came winter after winter of grunt work. Bit by bit, season upon season, Jensen and colleagues Bill Chandler, Shannon Elder, Dave Ludeker and his son Shawn cleared a trail toward Warrenton Road, working to remove or control the woodland's invasive trees, shrubs and vines.

Last spring, members of the Central Rappahannock Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist program joined in the effort, pulling up non-native plants and posting markers to identify particular shrub and tree species. Bartlett Tree Experts donated wood chips to dress the path, which makes for surer, less muddy footing.

A few weeks ago, Jensen and the Master Naturalists unveiled the hard-won result, hosting the first public tour of the trail. Though it was on a brisk late-March morning, the hikers loved it, delighted to find such natural beauty a few steps from the hurly-burly of U.S. 17 and U.S. 1.

HIGHLIGHTS ON TRAIL

The "promenade in the woods" that Mrs. Melchers sought features dramatic, boulder-strewn river front-age, the lower Falls Run pond site where the Melcherses cut ice in the winter, a creek-bottom 1920s pump house they built, and its nearby stone-lined springs.

Before leading around to the upper meadow, the trail swings by one of Belmont's most poignant sites, a cemetery for some of the farm's early inhabitants. Jensen's grounds-maintenance assistant, Dave Ludeker, and son Shawn pleasantly surprised her just after Thanksgiving two years ago by carefully documenting the graves and clearing them of overgrowth and poison ivy.

Jensen recalled: "I came back to work, and Dave said, 'I've got something I want to show you.' I went down there and, man, he'd cleared it all up."

Ellen E. Ficklen, the 22-year-old wife of Belmont's primary 19th-century owner, and her infant daughter, Ella, are among those interred there. Ellen Ficklen died on June 2, 1845, less than a year after her daughter's passing. (Belmont's staff is trying to find funding to have Ellen's beautiful box-tomb gravestone restored. Ella's small headstone is adorned with a broken rosebud, symbolizing the death of a young child.)

Ellen's husband, Joseph B. Ficklen--one of the area's wealthiest 19th-century men--owned all kinds of local enterprises, including Falmouth's Belmont Mills and the village's cross-river toll bridge. Ficklen started his holdings at Belmont by acquiring 1 acre, eventually amassing 22 acres in all.

The trail ends at Belmont's butterfly garden and organic vegetable garden, which supplies produce to the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank.

By weaving together disparate sites on the property and giving walkers insight into its history as a small farm, the new trail helps round out Belmont's story, expanding it a bit beyond its understandable focus on Gari Melchers. Surely, the Melcherses--who so valued Falmouth's history--would have appreciated this.

From now on, the Master Naturalist volunteers will offer one guided walk per month on Belmont's new nature trail, beginning at 2 p.m. on the last Sunday of each month--rain or shine. The experience is best suited to small groups; groups of 10 or more should call ahead to make special arrangements.

But Jensen stressed that walkers are welcome to use the nature trail on any day, during Belmont's regular hours, not just on the once-a-month guided tours.

"We hope people will come on their own and explore," she said. "If they do, the rules are 'carry all your trash out, leave no trace, and take only pictures.' You can make quite a good little hike out of it, especially if you have kids. You can get down to the river, and you can have a nice picnic."

Gari Melchers Home and Studio asks only that hikers check in beforehand at the visitors center, so the staff knows they're on-site and can keep track of the trail's usage. Dogs on leash are welcome, too, provided their owners tidy up after them, Jensen said.

Clint Schemmer is a news editor with The Free Lance-Star. Contact him at 540/368-5029 or
Email: cschemmer@freelancestar.com.