Garrett Farm on exact 150th of Booth's death

[L Verge]

(07-13-2016 07:47 AM)Gphell22 Wrote:  I have sad news for anyone wanting to visit the site of the Garrett farm. The path to it is now chained off and there is a sign saying No Access and a $100,000 fine. The new historical marker is still there, "Assassin's End", but if you go a bit further north on 301 you will see a chain between two trees and the No Access sign.

A brief history: For years, the historical marker sat on the edge of the median strip of Route 301, left shoulder of the north-bound lanes and very close to the spot where Booth died. About a dozen years ago, the transportation people in Virginia moved it to the right-hand shoulder of the north-bound lanes - a little south from its original site and without a place to pull over to read it.

A member of the Surratt Society, Rick Smith of this forum, spent years and his own money, putting up better signage in the median strip that identified the site and gave a brief history. He also drove over a hundred miles one way several times during the summer to keep a cleared path and standing room for the site of the porch where Booth died. Invariably, tourists stole many of the pages and photos that Rick put up.

Finally, last fall, I received a call at the Surratt House Museum that someone had stolen the state's sign also. When Virginia reps told us that they did not have the money to replace it, members of the Surratt Society (a volunteer associate of the museum, many of whom are members of this forum) raised over $1600 for a new sign - that one went back up on the difficult right-hand shoulder of Route 301, and so did the "Verboten" signs denying access.

I believe that it was a joint decision between Fort A.P. Hill, the massive military reservation that owns much of Caroline County, Virginia, and the highway people. The Fort is attempting to preserve the site from relic seekers and, along with the State, realizes the potential for traffic accidents/fatalities at a site where cars go whizzing past at 70 mph.

In addition to the outside historical sign on the side of the highway, however, the Surratt Society also paid for a small, exhibit sign that is on display in the nearby Port Royal Museum. It duplicates the history of what is told on the Route 301 side of the road.

We're trying to preserve history, but society is not helping now-a-days. If you are interested in visiting all sites along the escape route of John Wilkes Booth, please consider taking one of the great bus tours that the Surratt Society has sponsored over the past 40 years. Contact me at laurie.verge@pgparks.com for further information or call 301-868-1121. We run these at least six times a year, in April and September, as well as for groups upon request.

Others have started to copycat our tours, but I always tell people to "accept no substitutes..." Forty continuous years with the narration including some of the foremost names in this field of history tells you something.