Contributed by Evelyn Edson, president
Scottsville Museum
Looking for a quiet and beautiful place to walk? Check out Scheier Natural Area in Fluvanna County just off Long Acre Road. This property of 100 acres is mostly wooded and includes a branch of Cunningham Creek. The three miles of trails are well-marked: red (which circuits the entire property), yellow, white, and blue. There is also a sheltered picnic table and an outhouse.
Scheier was the property of Howard and Neva Scheier who moved to the area in the 1950s. They left their home in Ohio and traveled the country looking for a new home and found it here. In 1997, they bequeathed the land to the Rivanna Conservation Society, which has managed it ever since. According to the Scheier will, no trees may be cut down.
Across the road to the south, the Scheier property includes nine ponds that were dug to raise minnows for fish bait, one of the ways the Scheiers made their living. These ponds are silting up now, but still provide a home for frogs and passing ducks and games. Look for the annual Frog Walk in March. Held at dusk (bring a flashlight), informed guides can help you identify the numerous varieties of noisy amphibians.
A few years ago, in a very wet winter, we saw hundreds of mushrooms of many colors and sizes. Last weekend we went, hoping the wet weather would have brought them out, and did see about a dozen mushrooms before we were chased back to the car by a torrential downpour complete with hail.
Come to walk, but, sorry, no dogs (except service dogs) or bicycles.
