Quaker Knob, Washington County

Just shy of 1,500 feet, Quaker Knob is the undramatic climax toward which all the surrounding countryside tends. It's all hills around here, and Quaker Knob accounts for a lot of the steepness of the farms and fields. The viewless summit is on private property with a water tower and some sort of communications tower, but the views are pleasant enough on the way up. This is the entrance to the old Vance farm on Vance Road. It appears to be abandoned, which is a shame because it was a big operation with a private monument to the family's war dead.

A better view of the Vance farm from the flanks of Quaker Knob. I hate to see these grand old farmhouses moldering into ruin. Actually, there are a lot of "bandos" (abandoned buildings) in this rural part of Washington County, including the pleasant little homestead (not pictured here) just at the top of the Vance family's lane. In much of this county, the frackers have rolled in and poisoned soil, air, and water, but they pay well, so no one wants to admit to the damage they're wreaking.

Another view along Vance Road from the climb up Quaker Knob. I'd like to know how this hill got its curious name. There's a historic old Presbyterian church very nearby, but I've never heard of Quakers in these parts. The Quakers have always been pacifists, and it surely took a more bellicose flavor of Christian to settle this frontier in the late 1700s. Enter: The Scotch-Irish...

This country is old. It's been stolen and retaken and stolen again. It's been bought and sold and left to the coal companies and now these reckless drillers from Texas. This land has been denuded of trees, and poked, and prodded, and poisoned and returned to its hayfields. But still, at the summit of Quaker Knob, the wood thrushes awaited me with their afternoon song, and the forest smelled of wildflowers. The summit is on private property, but the little gated lane to the top is not marked "posted," so I did a quick jaunt up to claim the peak for my peak-bagging club.

For a few sun-bleached photos of a very hot day on Pea Island, a national wildlife refuge off the coast of North Carolina, follow this LINK.