Two Historic items presented at Board of Supervisors meeting
Gold Medal Winner Lee will have part of US 22o named for him and Lewis and Clark Legacy Trail updated
Two historic items came before the Board of Supervisors at the September 28, 2021 meeting. The Supervisors heard a request to name a portion of US 220 the Norvel LaFallette Ray Lee Memorial Highway and a report on the status of the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Amsterdam District Supervisor Steve Clinton asked the Board to rename the portion of US 220 from Narrow Passage Road (Rt. 43) in Eagle Rock north to the Botetourt and Alleghany Counties line. The supervisors approved the proposal, which will have nominal signage fees related to the change.
Lee was born in 1924 in the Lick Run area in northern Botetourt. He was a Tuskegee Airman, a civil rights advocate, and an Olympic gold medal winner. He was the first native Black Virginian to win Olympic gold.
The Lewis and Clark Trail, which has been in the works for over a decade, is a state effort to commemorate the expedition of William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. That expedition opened up westward expansion and the Lewis and Clark Journals have given scientists and historians an idea of what life was like in the early 1800s.
Botetourt is one of 12 counties taking part in the Lewis and Clark Trail. The trail initiative is expected to bring in tourism dollars. Botetourt has multiple ties to Lewis and Clark. Clark married Judith Hancock of Fincastle, who lived at Santillane. Lewis unsuccessfully courted a Fincastle woman as well. Additionally, much of the writing of the Lewis and Clark Journals took place in the county seat.
Peggy Crosson of Fincastle, President of Virginia Lewis and Clark Trail, Inc., made the presentation to the supervisors.
For more information, visit Virginia Lewis and Clark Legacy Trail & the Explorers of the Expedition (valewisandclarklegacytrail.org).
— Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee
