On May 18-20, area residents are invited to experience Virginia’s central role in the American Revolution when the VA250 Mobile Museum Experience, “Out of Many, One,” visits Natural Bridge State Park This traveling exhibit will bring the story of the nation’s founding to the visitor center parking lot, open that Monday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. While standard admission applies to the park itself, the mobile museum is free, along with related displays in the visitor center lobby organized by the Rockbridge Historical Society and the local Rockbridge250 Committee.
As co-chair of Rockbridge250 with Lexington-Rockbridge Area Tourism Director Sheryl Wagner, RHS Executive Director Eric Wilson affirmed, “As our county namesake, Natural Bridge is an especially fitting site for this statewide tour. It builds on the local ‘launch’ of our area’s multi-year celebrations of American independence that began at Virginia’s flagship state park on July 5, 2024, timed to witness the 250th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Bridge from King George on that date in 1774.
“There’s a reason why the state’s exciting introductory video chose the Bridge’s natural beauty for its soaring, penultimate shot of our commonwealth’s landscapes, before closing with a complementary overview of Jefferson’s other renowned home and properties at Monticello” (watch “America: Made in Virginia,” at VA250.org/about).
More than just a static installation, “Out of Many, One” is a cutting-edge, immersive, hands-on exhibition housed within a custom-built 53-foot expandable tractor-trailer. Children and adults can move and browse at their own rate and depth, exploring high-tech displays, interactive exhibits and maps, video and virtual reality, along with distinctive artifacts from historic sites across the commonwealth. For a preview, see VA250.org/mobile-museum. -Among the RHS displays specially loaned for the visit, maps and historic prints on show in the visitor center illustrate Jefferson’s 52-year tenure as the first American owner of the Bridge.
Visitors can also explore a new 12-panel display and 30-episode podcast (on show at the RHS Museum through the summer) that highlight the TransAmerican “Bikecentennial Trail” – created in 1976 and now locally marked with bicycle logos as U.S. Bike Route 76 –stretching from Yorktown to Cape Disappointment on the Pacific Coast, where Lewis and Clark completed their pioneering transcontinental journey. This June, groups of riders will once again traverse its 50-mile stretch through Rockbridge, which runs from Natural Bridge and down Main Street Lexington, along South River before ascending the nation’s steepest climb on U.S.-Bike Route 76, from Vesuvius to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
These central and lesser-known stories of American independence build on the popular exhibit RHS jointly staged last fall with the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. The richly illustrated “Give Me Liberty: Virginia and the Forging of a Nation” (still on show at the VMHC in Richmond through July 1) was complemented by a stillcontinuing series of episodes screened from Ken Burns’ newest 12-hour documentary, “The American Revolution.”
Looking ahead, these narratives also seed the diverse events that the Rockbridge250 committee and community partners have been cultivating to herald America’s growing “Civic Season,” stretching from Juneteenth through July 4. Beyond, the Rockbridge250 committee invites local organizations to contribute to the longer commemorative run-up to the twin 250th birthdays of Lexington and Rockbridge in January 1778. To volunteer or to propose an organizational event of your own, contact [email protected].
