Culpeper County

Culpeper County relishes its rural beauty and historic charm, but its heartbeat is the thriving town of Culpeper. Once named “The Best Small Town in America,” Culpeper was even more-recently bestowed the “prettiest town in Virginia” by Architectural Digest. Culpeper sits about an hour away from Charlottesville and Washington, D.C.; just a little farther from Richmond and a little less from Fredericksburg. Yet despite its proximity to these bustling cities, Culpeper County retains its natural beauty, rustic splendor, and rural characteristics. The Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park dominate the western horizon and are just a short drive away.

Culpeper County was established in 1749 from land formerly considered Orange County, and originally included what is today Rappahannock County. The county was named for Thomas Colepeper, a seventeenth century Colonial governor. Culpeper County has an extensive Colonial and Civil War Era history. A young George Washington was commissioned as the first surveyor for the county in 1749, at the age of 17. Among his first duties was to survey for the county’s courthouse and associated buildings around downtown. Some of the alleys and roads remain in service today. The Culpeper Minutemen were first assembled in downtown Culpeper at the dawn of the American Revolution, and were instrumental in thwarting the British at the Battle of Great Bridge—a brief, but pivotal action during the war. After the Revolution, the Minutemen were disbanded, but were re-formed for the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War I.

Situated in Virginia’s northern Piedmont, Culpeper shares a distinction with Orange County as one of two counties in the northern tier of the state that sits entirely in a single physiographic region. Despite close proximity to the Blue Ridge, Culpeper is pure Piedmont. As such, one will find gentle rolling hills with typical Piedmont forest as well as sprawling open areas and agricultural landscapes. Wedged between the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers, neither river is particularly wide as they flow past the meadows, pastures, and woods.

Culpeper is a medium-sized county that ranks 51st in Virginia in total land area. Its size and compactness make travel to all parts of the county relatively easy, with the town of Culpeper as the hub. Birding in the county is typical of rural counties, with scarce large tracts of public land, but many opportunities for good roadside birding and a lack of traffic that makes such birding enjoyable. There is a portion of C. F. Phelps W.M.A within the county. The county is dotted with a handful of parks, though half are in the town of Culpeper. Spilman Park is at Jeffersonton, the northernmost tip of the county. Linn Park is just a few miles east of the town of Culpeper out Route 3. The Culpeper Sports Complex has some natural areas and a nature trail, and is just outside of the town. All of these county parks have barely been birded. Who knows what might be discovered at them?

The most visited birding location in Culpeper is the privately-owned Woodward Turf Farm. (A portion of these turf farms are across the Rappahannock in Fauquier County.) The owner once allowed access to birders with varying levels of tolerance over the years, however, we have regrettably learned in August 2020 that access is no longer permitted. An impressive roster of shorebirds have been found on these fields. If you do visit there, birding is now pull-offs and roadsides. Mountain Run Lake is another popular birding spot in the county, good for finding waterfowl in migration and winter, and occasionally when water levels are low shorebirds can be found along the muddy edges. A healthy wintering population of Bald Eagles can be seen here, and a lone Brown-headed Nuthatch had been regularly heard or seen in the pines from September 2017 until spring 2020.

Culpeper's species total in eBird is 249 as of August 2020, which ranks the county 36th for species seen in Virginia, and is 35th for the number of checklists submitted. State-level rarities include Virginia's first nesting Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, a state-high 50 Hudsonian Godwits, Swallow-tailed Kite, Upland Sandpiper, Sandhill Crane, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. Several regionally-rare species have been reported in the county with reports of the aforementioned Brown-headed Nuthatch, American Avocet, King Rail, Stilt Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, Sanderling, Willet, Little Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Lark Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, Snow Bunting, Marsh Wren, and nesting Loggerhead Shrike.

—Todd Michael Day & James Fox 

Hotspots

STAKEOUT HOTSPOTS

The following hotspots should only be used to input historical records pertaining to a specific staked out rarity, as indicated in the hotspots names.

• stakeout Harris’s Sparrow, Locust Dale Road (2020-2021)

accessibility & Surroundings

No interstate highways enter Culpeper County, however there are several major US Routes that make the county easily accessible. US 29 bisects the county in a loosely east-to-west transect between Fauquier and Madison Counties. US 15 runs concurrent with US 29 for most if its miles within the county, but branches off more southerly just south of the town of Culpeper, heading toward Orange. US 522 crosses the county in a more north-to-south direction, running between Rappahannock and Orange Counties. A small section of US 211 nips the tip of Culpeper County as it runs west from Fauquier to Shenandoah National Park. State Roads 229 and 3 serve as major connectors for the town of Culpeper. Route 229 runs north and ends at US 211. Route 3 leaves the town and heads southeasterly to Fredericksburg and beyond.

Culpeper County is bordered on the north by Rappahannock and Fauquier County, with easy travel between the two (despite there being only four bridges across the Rappahannock into Fauquier). To the south are Madison and Orange, and both of those counties are easily accessed from Culpeper. There is short border with Spotsylvania County with one road that runs between them. Stafford County also borders Culpeper, however the Rappahannock River separates the two, and it would take a 40-minute drive to shake someone’s hand on the other side of the river without getting your feet wet.

amenities

Culpeper’s estimated 51,000 residents are well-served by an abundance of eating and shopping options; nearly all of these are found in the town of Culpeper. Outlying options are scarce, though a couple of gas stations and convenient stores can be found, as well as a Subway near Brandy Station. There are five national chain hotels in the county, with most of these clustered at the southern end of town. There are a few local hotels and motels with a range of prices and quality. For beer drinkers, the county has three breweries, including two in the town of Culpeper: Beer Hound Brewery and Far Gohn Brewing. The latter of these is a charming, self-styled “tavern brewery” focusing on German styles and modeled after pre-Prohibition taverns. To the east near Brandy Station, Old Trade Brewery serves up beer and cider in an agricultural setting perfect for keeping the eBird list running while you sip your pint.