s Marines and Weems-Botts Museums

If the idea of hiking all day through a woodland watershed, passing only a few fellow nature lovers, appeals to you, then visit Prince William Forest Park, managed by the National Park Service.

The park’s 37 miles of trails and fire roads crisscross the north and south branches of the Quantico Creek.  The land now reclaimed by the forest was once farm land.  Settlement in the area goes back to1756 when Scottish settlers established a port in Dumfries that rivaled any in the New World.  It is from Dumfries that historians believe William Ramsay barged his home up the Potomac River to his lot in the new town of Alexandria (see selection).  Poor farming practices led to soil erosion and the harbor at Quantico Creek became silted.  It eventually became an unpenetrable marsh.  Now whistling swans winter over along Quantico Creek at Dumfries.

The land on which Prince William Forest Park stands was originally acquired by the federal government as the Chopawamsic Recreation Demonstration Area in 1934.  The Civilian Conservation Corps began the process of restoring this land to its natural state.  As you follow the forest trails you'll see old orchards, building foundations, overgrown cemeteries and an old pyrite mine site.

Today songbirds, raptors, white-tail deer, foxes, ruffed grouse, flying squirrels, wild turkeys and beavers populate the woods.  You are more likely to see signs of the beavers' presence than any of these shy animals.  Throughout the woods beaver dams are under construction across meandering streams.  If you have a fishing license you can try your luck catching the bass, bluegill, perch and catfish found in the park's streams.  Park rangers will direct you where you can go to get a fishing license.

The Pine Grove Forest Trail, at the Pine Grove Picnic Area, is paved to provide access for strollers and wheelchairs.  Taped messages at audio stations tell about the animals found here.  At the Oak Ridge campground,  the Farms to Forest Trail shows the process of reclamation from cleared land to forest land.   For park infomation and trail maps, stop at the park’s visitor center, approximately one mile past the main entrance. 

While in the area be sure to stop at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum across Route 1 from the park.  You need no advance reservations.  The Marine guard at the sentry booth will check your driver's license when you enter the base and issue you a Visitor's Pass.

For many years the museum was limited primarily to Marine aviation but now the scope is broader and includes ground equipment and weapons.  Currently there are three hangars open to the public: the first covering the "Early Years" of the air-ground team (1900-1941) and the second covering World War II, and a third hangar on the Korean War.

Quantico's association with aviation goes back to the Civil War when hot air balloons were used for reconnaissance over the Potomac River near Quantico.  Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley launched a 25-pound, 13-foot flying model from the roof of a wooden houseboat moored in the river.  He believed the water would make recovery of the craft more likely.  Langley models were the forerunner of the Wright brothers' airplane.  Langley did try two unsuccessful manned flights before the Wright brothers succeeded at Kitty Hawk.

Langley's flying machine is on display in the main lobby of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, but the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum exhibits some of his early models in the first hangar.   Included in this exhibit are a Curtiss airplane "Pusher" and World War I vintage aircraft: a Thomas-Morse "Scout" advance trainer and a DeHaviland D.H. 4B fighter bomber of the type flown by Marine pilots in France.  There are also two Boeing fighter planes from the late 1920s and 1930s as well as a Stearman N25-3 primary trainer.  A Wright J-5 "Whirlwind" engine on display is the same type that powered Lucky Lindy's "Spirit of St. Louis."

In addition to the airplanes, there are track and wheeled vehicles, artillery, small arms, uniforms, personal equipment, photographs and art---all part of the story of the Marine Corps' air-ground attack and defense.

The museum is open April through the third Sunday in November from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Tuesday through Saturday and NOON to 5:00 P.M. on Sunday.  It is closed on Mondays and  Easter Sunday.  Guided tours are provided for groups by prior arrangement; call (703) 784-2606.  No guided tours begin after 4:00 P.M.

One other museum in the area is the Weems-Botts Museum just up Route 1 in Dumfries.  Parson Weems was a physician,  preacher and traveling bookseller.  In the early 1800s, Parson Mason Locke Weems wrote the first biography of George Washington.  His apocryphal anecdotes, including the cherry-tree story, have become part of American folklore.

Weems purchased this story-and-a-half house in 1798 to use as a bookstore.  In 1802 Benjamin Botts purchased the house to use as his law office.  Benjamin Botts was the youngest lawyer on Aaron Burr's defense team during Burr’s 1807 trial for treason.  It is good that Botts achieved early fame for he met a tragic death along with his wife, the governor of Virginia and 162 other patrons who perished in the Richmond Theater fire of 1811.  An addition to the Weems-Botts house built in the mid-1800s by the Merchant family, now houses artifacts from the Dumfries area.  The museum hours are 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Tuesday through Saturday.

Directions:  From I-95 south of Alexandria take Exit 150, the Quantico-Triangle exit.  The exit sign will also indicate the turns for Prince William Forest Park (Exit 150-B) just off the interstate about 1/4 mile west.  For the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum take Route 619 east for about a mile.  For the Weems-Botts Museum take Exit 151 off I-95 and follow signs to the museum.