Sandy Bottom Nature Park

We have been enjoying the nice weather and the leaf changing color show, walking at the Sandy Bottom Park.
I think this place is a example of how we can fix some mistakes done to the environment.
The Sandy Bottom Nature Park is designed to enhance and protect wildlife habitats and to provide visitors with a chance to learn about its unique environment. The park is also a destination for those visitors simply interested in enjoying the outdoors through boating, fishing, hiking and other activities.Kecoughtan Indians, roamed the forests and meadows of today's Sandy Bottom Nature Park. Until some time in 1600, when European immigrants settled around Hampton and built houses and roads. Gradually, the Native Americans were driven from their old hunting grounds.The areas of the Hampton Roads Peninsula played significant roles during the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars, but no major battles were fought on the present park site. From the 1860's until the early 1950's, property owners farmed the land and harvested its trees for timber production. In the1950's the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) started mining sand needed for the construction of interstate highways. The pits formed from the mining operations, filled with rain and ground water to create the Sandy Bottom Lake.

After the Virginia Department of Transportation abandoned the mining pits in the 1970's, the property was abused by unconcerned citizens. They created crude roads as they sought access to the crystal lake swimming hole or used the secluded areas for dumping trash. The property's trees, bushes and other vegetation died as roots were severed and soil compacted. Mammal, bird, reptile and amphibian populations declined with the ever-increasing level of human intrusion. The area's wetland forests were dying a slow and painful death. In March of 1989 the City of Hampton approached the Virginia Department of Transportation with a park plan. VDOT deeded 250 acres of their old mining pits to the city with the understanding that the wetlands would be saved and developed. Over the next few years the city acquired almost two hundred additional acres from private land owners.

Sandy Bottom Nature Park was born!