Free Republic

n 1977, Christendom College was founded in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, with the motto “Instaurare Omnia In Christo: To Restore All Things in Christ.” Shortly thereafter, a pro-life student club called Shield of Roses was formed. The current club president, Elizabeth Eller, a junior majoring in History at the Catholic college, told Live Action News about the club name’s origin. “The name came from the concept of praying the rosary at the clinics every time we peacefully protest. Just as we say the rosary and ask (the Blessed Virgin) Mary to protect us from harm, we pray the...

WAYNESBORO — President Trump's national infrastructure plan announced Monday that calls for a $1.5 trillion investment in roads, bridges and the rest of America's crumbling infrastructure, provides for about $200 billion in federal funds. The remainder of dollars would have to come from state, local and private sources. For the Shenandoah Valley, the good infrastructure plan news includes funding to help with the maintenance backlog in the national parks, including Shenandoah National Park, where there is a $56 million maintenance backlog. However, a couple of local government officials and one of Virginia's U.S. senators interviewed expressed doubt about the trickle...

SHENANDOAH — Nearly every pew at St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church was filled Sunday afternoon for the 32nd annual celebration of Father Walter Ciszek Day. The annual Mass commemorates the life and death of Ciszek, whose cause for canonization is being investigated by the Catholic Church. St. Casimir is the worship center of Divine Mercy Roman Catholic Church. It is also where Ciszek was baptized, confirmed and received First Holy Communion. “Please continue to pray that Father Walter Ciszek be elevated to sainthood in our lifetime so that we may celebrate together,” Monsigner Ronald C. Bocian said. He attributed the...

Bear’s Den Rock has captured the attention of travelers in the northern Shenandoah Valley since colonial times and for thousands of years before by the indigenous people who hunted and fished in the region. Now, a local archaeologist believes that the prominent outcrop just south of Virginia’s Route 7 in Clarke County is a part of a larger 12,000 year old celestial calendar used by Native Americans to mark the changing of the seasons. Archaeologist Jack Hranicky believes that a 12,000-year-old solstice site has been discovered in Clarke County, Virginia“Although archaeological sites have been discovered across the United States, there’s...

"Oh Shenandoah" (also called simply "Shenandoah", or "Across the Wide Missouri") is a traditional American folk song of uncertain origin, dating at least to the early 19th century. The Robert Shaw Chorale - Shenandoah

Belle Grove is a fine old limestone manor house which comes with a good bit of history. The house was built near Middleton in Frederick County, Virginia, by Isaac Hite, Jr., a grandson of the pioneer Pennsylvania German settler Jost Hite. Its elegant design warranted mention in A History of the Valley of Virginia, by Samuel Kercheval, Charles James Faulkner, and John Jeremiah Jacob (1833). . . [vintage pictures]

One of the more durable contributions of the German settlers of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley are the stone houses, barns, and other buildings which they construction during Colonial times. Typically made of cut limestone blocks, these sturdy buildings sometimes were designed to serve as 'forts' during Indian attacks. Thus in many Shenandoah Valley communities there is, or at least was, an 'Old Stone Fort' which had been built by Pennsylvania Germans.

The Shenandoah National Park displaced some 450 families from the northern reach of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. The Park meant the end of a generations-old way of life for the mountain folk, many of whom didn't want to leave. [numerous vintage photographs]

The establishment of the Shenandoah National Park displaced the traditional communities of Backcountry folk who had lived for generations in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Front Royal and Rockfish Gap. By and large, the houses, barns, and stores which were within the Park boundaries were not spared -- they were razed. [Vintage photographs]

FEBRUARY 9--Felony snowball throwing charges have been leveled against two Virginia college students for allegedly pelting a city plow and an undercover police car during Saturday's blizzard. Charles Gill and Ryan Knight, both 21, were nabbed by cops in Harrisonburg, where they attend James Madison University. According to police, the pair first targeted a city plow last Saturday afternoon. The driver responded by calling cops to report the frosty fusillade. When police responded to the scene in a bid to identify the assailants, their unmarked vehicle also came under an icy assault, according to a Harrisonburg Police Department press release....

Federal officials say they are investigating an explosive device that was set off on train tracks near a college campus in Harrisonburg, Va. Rich Marianos, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearm, said local residents reported hearing a boom about 6:30 a.m. Thursday. He said local police have investigated and determined there was an explosive device on train tracks near the campus of James Madison University at Cheapeake Street and Cantrell Avenue. He said there were no injuries and terrorism is not suspected

This weekend, Tertium Quids' own Freedom & Prosperity Radio show started broadcasting on two new radio stations: WKCY 1300 AM and WKCI 970 AM in the Shenandoah Valley. This puts us on-air in NINE cities in less than a year: Roanoke, Salem, Blacksburg and the New River Valley, Martinsville, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Waynesboro, Staunton, and Lexington Freedom & Prosperity Radio is Virginia’s ONLY syndicated political talk radio show and is a weekend show about Virginia and national politics from a Virginia viewpoint. We are actively working to spread the message of limited government and free markets throughout Virginia by interviewing renowned...

The top of the frozen apple juice can was stamped with the date, then the word "China." I could not believe it. China? I live in the Shenandoah Valley, at one time the biggest apple producer in the world, and my apple juice comes from China? Maybe it's just this store brand, I thought. But a visit to another grocery store confirmed it. They stocked a name brand, the top of it stamped with the date and the words "from China." I googled "China and apples." Stories and reports came up confirming my ... yes, fear. I hadn't been paying...

The Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia, is a window on the past. The museum traces the history of various immigrants who settled the Virginia frontier in colonial and early American times with buildings depicting the architecture and lifestyle of the folk of England, Northern Ireland, West Africa, and Germany who came to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Most of the houses and other buildings are the real thing. The English farmhouse was built in England in the 17th century; the Museum had it disassembled and reconstructed it in Virginia. The 1820s and 1850s American farm houses are likewise the...

Putting Faith into Action The Forum invites you to participate in the following three events next month aimed at promoting faith, family, and freedom in our communities. It's a great way to start the New Year. For further information and reservations, email family@valleyfamilyforum.org or call 438-8966. · “Capstone” (Jan. 10 – March 13): This is a series of seminars on how to help reverse the moral decline in our culture and promote Biblical values in public policy. Resources include materials from Focus on the Family and field trips to Richmond and Washington. Sessions are held at Lake Shenandoah each Thursday...

CV-22: Virginia’s Blue Ridge Is Venue For Final Sign-Off Of Terrain Flight Capability. Winchester, Va., Residents of this rural town - with the most northern airport in Virginia - woke to see a USAF CV-22 Osprey overhead, returning from a foray into the nearby Blue Ridge mountains before dawn. A joint USAF/Boeing team is here to conduct ‘live’ instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) flights of the aircraft’s terrain following/terrain avoidance (TF/TA) radar system prior to completing development ready for operational use. The crew tells rotorhub the emphasis in this series of flights is low-speed work: high speed flights - also in...

FRONT ROYAL, Va. — This small Shenandoah Valley town must wait to become a battleground for the growing public debate about whether the General Assembly overreached in assessing high fees for Virginia drivers who break the law. The Town Council last night postponed a decision on whether to stop its 36-officer police force from enforcing most "abuser fees" laws for motorists. "It seems to me it may be appealing in a kind of small guy versus big guy way, but I'm not sure that is the answer here," said council member Stanley W. Brooks Jr., who proposed postponing the vote....

Walter Ciszek (1904-1984) Before there was an Armistice Day, Walter Ciszek was born on November 11, 1904, and lived through a crucified century. Death came gracefully in 1984 on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. In boyhood he was a bully in a gang on the gritty streets of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, and Ciszek’s Polish immigrant father dragged him to the police station, hoping to put him into a reform school. Everyone thought he was joking when the eighth grader announced that he would enter the Polish minor seminary. The seminarian swam in an icy lake and rose before dawn...

The Diocese of Allentown is asking the Vatican to canonize a Shenandoah priest who survived more than two decades of imprisonment in the Soviet Union. The diocese sent three crates of materials concerning the Rev. Walter Ciszek’s life to Rome two weeks ago. The crates included six cardboard boxes that contained things such as sworn testimony from 45 witnesses and thousands of typed pages of his writings and meditations. The documents reportedly took 16 years to compile. The Vatican is slated to review them beginning Tuesday. “They arrived last week,” Sister Albertine of the Father Walter Ciszek Prayer League in...

This Day In History | Civil War October 9 1864 Battle of Tom's Brook Union cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley deal a humiliating defeat to their Confederate counterparts at Tom's Brook, Virginia. Confederate General Jubal Early's force had been operating in and around the Shenandoah area for four months. Early's summer campaign caught the attention of Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, who was laying siege to Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. Grant was determined to neutralize Early and secure the Shenandoah for the North. He dispatched one of his best generals, Philip Sheridan, to pursue the Rebels there. Sheridan took command...