Saturday, August 16, 2025, 11 AM-2PM.

$20 per person. (Seats are limited)

Highlights of Culpeper History: from surveyor George Washington to the Field Brothers marker at Kelly's Ford. 

 

Lecture/tour on step-van led by Jim Bish beginning and ending at the Graffiti House, 19484 Brandy Road, Brandy Station.

 

Planned stops will be the site of George Washington's first survey and how Washington ended up as the youngest surveyor in Virginia's history ; a drive-by historic Salubria and then on to the Great Fork Church site of the 1730s, Lafayette Troop camp in 1781, Madden's Tavern of the 1840s, and the murder of the three United States Colored Troops in May 1864. Lastly, the Brandy Station Foundation site at Kelly's Ford and the newly installed Field Brothers marker at that location tells about the importance of the Field Family including Joseph and Reuben who would eventually join up with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

 

Tour leader Jim Bish spent more than 30 years teaching American and Virginia History in Prince William County, Virginia and spent two years as an educator at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. He served Prince William County as a member of the Historical Commission, owns History Happened Here Tours, and volunteers with the National Museum of Americans in Wartime. Jim currently is on the Board of Directors of Historic Prince William, Historic Dumfries, The Museum of Culpeper History, is President of the Culpeper Minutemen Chapter, VASSAR, and founded the Culpeper County, Virginia Cemetery Project. His recently completed book titled, I Can’t Tell A Lie: Parson Weems and The Truth About George Washington’s Cherry Tree, Prayer at Valley Forge, and Other Anecdotes received the 2023 National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Stephen Taylor Award, given to the book which has made the greatest contribution to the preservation of the history of the Revolutionary War era and its Patriots. Most recently, Jim received the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution – History Award Medal in 2024 from the Prince William County Resolves Virginia Chapter and the Hannah White Arnett Award in 2025 from the Estrella Chapter of Arizona.