Geomorphic response to historical agriculture at Monument Hill in the Blue Ridge Foothills of Central Virginia

Historical forest clearance and agriculture have had profound effects on the landscape of the southeastern United States. This study examines a site called Monument Hill located in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia in order to better understand the long-term effects of historical agriculture on soil and streams. This site, deeply gullied and drained by an incised first-order stream, was first settled in the mid-eighteenth century and became part of a large nineteenth-century plantation. A thick sediment fan at the base of the hill buried and preserved a historical soil surface, archaeological artifacts, and woody debris datable by dendrochronology. The geomorphology of the site, along with limited historical data and tree ages from the mature second-growth forest cover, has enabled reconstruction of the sequence of land-use changes and measurement of geomorphic response over two and a half centuries.