Boydton and Petersburg Plank Road - "A Timbered Turnpike"
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 36° 40.117 W 078° 23.131
17S E 733655 N 4061296
Historic signage and a reproduction of the old Boydton and Petersburg Plank Road are at this location.
Waymark Code: WMK3V
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 08/04/2006
Views: 60
A nice display on the Boydton and Petersburg Plank Road is located in a small city park across from the Historic Presbyterian Church and Cemetery. A reproduction of a small portion of the road has been built and an authentic wagon placed upon it.
The signage reads:
"The Boydton and Petersburg Plank Road, built between 1851 and 1853, was the first all-weather route connecting Southside Virginia's tobacco and wheat farms with the market. Pine and oak planks, 8 feet long, 1 foot wide and 3 to 4 inches thick were laid across paralleled beams slanted toward a ditch. The road boosted crop revenues 30 to 100 percent. Along the approximately 73 miles, there were 7 toll houses and keepers. Stagecoaches drove the 73 miles Monday through Saturday, stopping every 11 miles for food and fresh teams. Condemned by 1860, it nonetheless provided an important route for troop movements during the Civil War. Another continuous hard-surface link would not exist until the 1930's. Parts of some highways, including U.S. 1, follow the old roadbed, and Petersburg still has a thoroughfare called Boydton Plank Road. A ten mile extension to the Roanoke River at Clarksville was completed in 1856.
Boydton Plank Road was mentioned numerous times in Robert E. Lee's dispatches to President Jefferson Davis and Secretary of War John C. Breckenridge during the last days the Confederate Army was in Petersburg during the final days of the Civil War.
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