History Along The Ararat River From Bell Spur Virginia to
Siloam North Carolina
A River Called Ararat
"History is like going down a river, but you
never get to the end of it,
because you are up in all the tributaries checking out all the coves."
-- Ruth Minick
The swimming hole on the Guynn Farm along the Ararat River where many a summer
afternoon was spent.
Bell Spur To Friends Mission Road
Bell Spur Church sits at the intersection of Squirrel Spur and Bell Spur Road
within a mile of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The church also sits at the
intersection of the Dan, New and Ararat rivers. West across the Parkway water
drains into Big Reed Island Creek and into the New, Ohio and Mississippi rivers
and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. East across Squirrel Spur Road water
falls down into Kibler Valley and the Dan River making it’s way back and forth
across the state line between North Carolina and Virginia past Danville and
eventually into the Roanoke River and Albemarle Sound near the Outer Banks.
The Ararat River begins in two feeder streams behind the church and comes
together in a heart shaped pool that was used for baptisms by the church beside
the Bell Spur Road. The story goes that a young man dreamed of a baptizing pool
and the next day he found it. He was killed during the Civil War and never
baptized.
The river’s name comes from present day Pilot Mountain. On Peter Jefferson’s map
of 1755, that mountain was called Mount Ararat. The stream flows by it kept the
name while the mountain’s name reverted to the Native name. The biblical
reference comes from Genesis 8:4 when Noah’s “ark came to rest on the mountains
of Ararat.” There are other references to Ararat in Jeremiah 51:27 and Isaiah
37:38.
The Ararat River has seen enough history to fill many pages. This web page will
begin with the source of the river itself. The river falls off the Blue Ridge
Mountains and flows down by Raven Rock area at the foot of Groundhog Mountain.
The river holds fond memories for those of us who grew up on it’s banks where we
would dam it up, making swimming holes that we’d plunged into after working in
tobacco fields on hot summer days.
The river flows by Ararat and The Hollow areas of Patrick County now covered by
the Ararat post office. Jeb Stuart once frolicked in the same river as it cut
through his parent’s fifteen hundred acre farm Laurel Hill before entering North
Carolina. Once in the “Old North State” passes by the site of the White Sulphur
Springs Hotel and the Mount Airy and Eastern “Dinky” Railroad passing through
Mount Airy, North Carolina, by the granite quarry and the site in 1865 where
George Stoneman’s Union troops camped in April 1865 during a raid at the end
Civil War.
The Ararat River ends near Siloam, North Carolina, flowing into the Yadkin River
near the site of bridge tragedy of the 1970s. The Yadkin in turn flows into the
Great Pee Dee and empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Georgetown, South
Carolina some 300 miles away from it’s source near Bell Spur in the Blue Ridge
Mountains of Patrick County.
The Ararat River begins behind the Bell Spur Church shown above when two
feeder streams come together to form the pool shown below.
By any other name.
The Ararat River has been called many other names and
spellings such as Arrat River, Ararat Creek, Rentfro or Rentfrows Creek or the
Tarrarat River. The name really comes from the Jefferson-Fry map of Virginia in
which the mountains of Sauratown and Pilot respectively are referred to as the
Mountains of Ararat.
"Ararat Meaning: sacred land or
high land
The name "Ararat"
is mentioned four times in the Bible's original manuscripts (Gen.
8:4;
2
Kings 19:37;
Isaiah
37:38;
Jer.
51:27). This was the name of a country.
On one of its mountains Noah's ark rested after the
Flood
subsided (Gen.
8:4).
Most researchers believe that the "mountains" mentioned were
probably the Kurdish range of South Armenia in Turkey. In the
King James Bible,
2
Kings 19:37
and
Isa.
37:38
translate the word
"Ararat" as "Armenia." However, other versions, including the
New King James Version, simply say "land of Ararat." In this
area of modern Turkey, near the Russian and Iranian borders,
there is a large mountain named Mount Ararat. It is made
entirely of volcanic rock and is an extinct volcano that rose
during Noah's flood. The highest point is almost 17,000 feet
above sea level, and the mountain consists of two peaks, Great
Ararat and Little Ararat. It rises a majestic 14,000 feet from
the plain of Aras (Araxes). The higher peak is perpetually
covered in snow. The mountain is called Kuh-i-nuh, i.e., "Noah's
mountain", by the Persians. Many modern researchers have climbed
Mt. Ararat in search of the remains of Noah's Ark. It is
believed that the land of "Ararat" is the Hebrew equivalent of
Urardhu, or Urartu, which was the Assyrian-Babylonian name of
the Vannic or Chaldean kingdom (between the Aras River and the
Tigris River). This part of Armenia was inhabited by a people
who spoke a language unlike any other now known, though it may
have been related to the modern Georgian. About B.C.,
900
they borrowed the cuneiform characters of
Nineveh,
and from this time we have inscriptions of a line of kings who
at times contended with
Assyria.
At the close of the seventh century B.C. the kingdom of Ararat
came to an end, and the country was occupied by a people who are
ancestors of the Armenians of the present day."
Author: Matthew G. Easton and Paul S. Taylor
Some Links About Mount Ararat in Turkey
http://www.allaboutturkey.com/ararat.htm
http://www.accuracyingenesis.com/ararat.html
http://www.noahsarksearch.com/urartu.htm
The Ararat River parallels Squirrel's Spur Road shown above on map
and
looking out across the Ararat River Valley from Belair Springs.
View of Pilot and Sauratown Mountains from Squirrel's Spur
Road.
The Ararat River valley is to the west of ridge on the
right.
[Montgomery Place / Jar Gap]
The Ararat River comes off the Groundhog Mountain of the Blue Ridge Mountains
of the Appalachia Range from just under 3,000 feet to the valley floor at ?
feet.
MONTGOMERY PLACE (Raven Rock, Jar Gap,)
The first place the river flows by is the Montgomery Place.
Noah's Ark In Ararat Virginia? Click Here To
Follow A Humorous Investigation
ARARAT'S BIG THREE HISTORICAL FIGURES ALL BORN
IN ARARAT VIRGINIA
Reverend Bob Childress "The Man Who Moved A Mountain"
Midwife Orlean Hawks Puckett
J. E. B. Stuart
ARARAT HISTORY
The Hollow History Center
Above on the left members of the Moore Family
visiting the Hollow History Center in 2006. The Library cabin contains records
about history in Ararat, Virginia. The Hollow History Center is located at 36
Marigold Road in the Doe Run Section of Ararat, just about a mile from the
Ararat River crossing on the Friend's Mission Road.
Click Here To Visit Ararat Virginia
Click Here To Learn More About Ararat Virginia
History
Blue Ridge Elementary School is about one mile
to the east of the crossing of the Ararat River on the Friend's Mission Road.
The school started by the Friends or Quakers began in the 1880s giving the
community the name of Friend's Mission. The school sold to the Presbyterians was
purchased by the county in the 1930s and still sits today at the original
location.
Click Here To Learn About Blue Ridge School History
Click Here To Follow The Ararat River To The
Guynn Bottomland
Copyright 2007 Thomas D. Perry. All Rights Reserved. Contact Information
P. O. Box 50 Ararat Virginia 24053
freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com
"History is a river that may take us as
it will. But we have the power to navigate,
to chose direction, and make our passage
together."
--Ronald Wilson Reagan April 30, 1984