Back in 2021 we pitched a project in Dayton to enhance access and protect Silver Lake. We proposed educational signage, infrastructure to ensure continued irrigation by nearby farms, trash cans for folks visiting and fishing and most importantly, an easement agreement with landowners ensuring public access to the lake in perpetuity.
The project was simple on paper, but very nuanced because of the many stakeholders who care about its future–it is located in Rockingham County, owned by the city of Harrisonburg as a backup water supply, and beloved and iconic to the town of Dayton along with the neighboring farms and Silver Lake Mill.
Now, we are extremely excited to announce that the project is in the home stretch, and it was worth the wait! Thanks to the generosity of neighboring families and diligence of land trust Shenandoah Valley Conservancy, a public access easement is complete and generations of local folks will enjoy Silver Lake. The trash cans are installed. The irrigation access is in place and the signs have been delivered. And the finished product is even better than we hoped! In partnership with Bee Friends of Dayton the signs will be placed in pollinator gardens and include QR codes linked to digital historical archives so visitors can dig deeper into the past while enjoying the present and promise of the future at Silver Lake.
Lake Memories
Happy Water Memories
Alliance staff Nancy Sorrells (Augusta) in 1965 alongside her older brother and younger sister and father at the fishing pond that her great-grandfather installed in the 1950s. The spring feeding this “lake” is one of the headwaters springs (and there are 100s) to the South River.
An Unforgettable Pond
One of my most significant childhood memories happened on a summer afternoon when I was about eight or nine years old. There was a small pond nestled amongst the trees in a natural area near our house in upstate South Carolina. On that afternoon, I walked down to the pond and, in a moment of clarity, the utter beauty and magic of the pond and forest hit me. The sunlight on the water, the many layers and shades of green of the surrounding trees and the awareness of hidden animal and insect life shimmered with an aura out of a fairy tale. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen and that impression remains with me today, like an imprint or an encoding of the secrets, beauty and complexity of nature.
Alliance staff Chris Anderson (Page/Warren) says she never returned to that special place. She just couldn’t bear to see it in any other state than when she visited on that summer afternoon.
Top photo of Silver Lake in Dayton by Nancy Sorrells.