Saving History Saturday: Battlefields Added to Preservation Virginia’s Most Endangered Places List
On May 19th Preservation Virginia announced their 2026 Most Endangered Places List. Two Civil War battlefields are on this year’s list due to the Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Line Corridor, as part of the Valley Link project.
The Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Line Corridor is a proposed 765 Kw transmission line project that would run through nine counties in Virginia. Running 115 miles from near Lynchburg in Campbell County to near Richardsville in Culpeper County, the line would require a 200-foot-wide corridor cutting through Appomattox, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Louisa, and Orange counties, and possibly Goochland and Spotsylvania as well. A future line would be needed from the new Yeat substation in Culpeper County to the Morrisville substation in Fauquier County.
The route would run through the heart of the Yellow Tavern Battlefield Study Area, as well as the Mine Run Battlefield Study Area, and depending on the exact route could also go through part of the Wilderness Battlefield Study Area.
“We all know our world is progressing in ways we would have never imagined. Technology requires data and data needs to be powered. This does not mean providing this power should come at the cost of our nation’s history.” Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT) President Tom Van Winkle said. He continued, “Those who fell on the battlefields affected by this massive transmission line project would have expected those hallowed grounds to be respected. This is not the way to accomplish that expectation.”
CVBT, as well as the American Battlefield Trust, Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield, as well as other historic and conservation groups are joining local citizens in opposition to this project.
To find out more about Preservation Virginia, and their Most Endangered list, visit their website. To learn more about the threat that the Valley Link project holds, visit the Piedmont Environmental Council website here.
