Discover history & heritage along the Wilderness Road, Virginia’s Heritage Migration Route. We invite you to blaze your own trail of discovery along The Wilderness Road and relive America’s unique history and heritage.
Located in the historic Hardesty-Higgins House, the center opened in fall of 2009 making it easier for visitors to explore the Civil War sites throughout the area, including Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, and parts of southern Page and northern Augusta counties.
The center hosts the permanent exhibition that celebrates the life of pioneering African-American educator, Lucy F. Simms, and the school named in her honor. The Lucy F. Simms School was built soon after her death and served African-American students from all over Rockingham County and beyond between 1938 and 1965. This exhibit at the center, spanning 150 years of history, tells the story of the school in terms of its place at the heart of local community life.
Gen. Turner Ashby, in command of Jackson’s cavalry, was mortally wounded at this site now marked with a monument and a small park. His death, June 6, 1862, immediately preceded the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic.
Located off E. Market Street. This historic cemetery was founded in 1850 by community leaders as a non-denominational, non-profit community cemetery. Among the points of interest are the graves of Joseph White Latimer, Boy Major (VMI) in the Civil War; Confederate General John Robert Jones (Harrisonburg’s only Civil War general); a large square plot of 270 Confederate soldiers’ graves; “Little Arlington” of WWII veterans; family and community mausoleums.