Have you made it? Busy Medical or Law practice? Own a successful business? Do you run a horse training-breeding operation on a small rented property? Yet, does your life seem incomplete? Have you tried golfing or boating to fill that void, only to find weekends on the golf course or sitting on a boat detract from your family life? Do you long for the freedom you experienced as a youth, hiking in forests, through rolling fields, hunting, fishing, or biking on country roads? Do you dream of reliving and sharing these experiences with your children, grandchildren, friends, and business associates? Have you dreamed of riding and training horses and shooting your guns in the privacy and safety of your own land? Only a few miles from The Greenbrier Resort, Dunlap Crossing allows you to form and live your dreams, your imagination to soar, and for you to temporarily escape the real world.

My family spent 8 years searching for the perfect retreat. We investigated every farm listed for sale within a hundred miles, always finding too many sink holes, too little cleared land or simply a lack of magic experienced when exploring the properties. Then on a Sunday drive, we spotted a For Sale sign on a gate in a nearby Virginia mountain valley. Upon a call to the listing agent, we were told, that farm just came on the market, the gate is unlocked, go in and take a look around. Be sure and ford the trout stream, the back half of the property is more beautiful than the front. My wife and I looked at each other and said, SOLD! We found a farm with magic and bought it on Monday. The magic and joy we experienced that day has not faded but continues to grow.

Entering the gate we discovered a breathtakingly beautiful farm with a crystal clear, spring fed, trout stream piercing its center. A National Forest surged upward from the back boundary to cross a forested ridge hundreds of feet above. With an eagle soaring high above on a bright sun filled day, my life was no longer incomplete.

For eight years we had boarded our horses on farm and with trainers. That experience shaped plans for a farm, horses, and owners would enjoy. The next day, the family walked the property placing stakes for paddocks, and a riding arena. We measured the 100 year old barn for stalls and our adventure began. Fences for paddocks rose. Tractors and trucks moved dirt to begin construction of a large dressage arena. A dowser selected a site and a well was drilled. The 100 year old barn received a new metal roof, a new hay loft floor, replacement of damaged support beams and a concrete floor. The old corn crib was crowned with a metal roof and became our office/trophy room/ art studio. Our horses took up residence, a sign was erected and Dunlap Crossing Equestrian Center was born.

The magic is the clean, breezy, mountain air that energized family, horses, and visitors alike. It is how imaginations are ignited by accounts be previous owners of plowed fields littered with arrowheads and the frequent appearance of visitors seeking permission to hunt for Confederate treasure rumored to be buried on the farm. By walking along or fly fishing in Dunlap Creek, its landscape essentially unchanged from when for many centuries by yearly burns, Native Americans maintained lush meadows to attract deer and buffalo. Today, tractors manicure rolling green hay fields. Wide deer trails still spill from the forest. Dreamers question which ravine or mound of dirt hides a treasure or an Indian burial site. Shawnee hunting parties and Civil War mounted soldiers moving through the valley no longer stir adrenaline. Occasionally, Navy fighter pilots and their wingmen do, as they roar from ridge to ridge and along the valley floor in nape of earth maneuvers. Tomorrow at dawn, these young pilots might be off to Afghanistan or Iraq.

It is the masterfully designed barn, still after 100 years providing shelter for animals and hay. It magically stands like a proud sentinel, seen from all points of the farm. It is how little light pollution and cold clear air create a modern day rarity, clear, bright starry skies. It is how frequent sightings of wild deer and turkeys and catching fish the rainbows on their sides excite, as do glimpses of blue herons searching for their own rainbows in Dunlap. In the evenings, how cold air dives from forested ridges to chill the valley floor, how under a full moon howls of coyotes echo thru the valley. It is a magical space experienced by its owners, visitors and wildlife alike.

The children are grown, college is past, and the little ones now trot behind. Our office/trophy room, with hand hewn beams in the ceiling, filled with ribbons and trophies to include Arab Regional and East Coast Champions, and two National Championship Trophies. The farm hosted visiting trainer workshops and a popular yearly horseshow. One daughter provided lessons and training sessions for local riders. Our girls bred crosses of German Warm-blood stallions to our prize Arabian mare. They rode on the Arabian and Dressage circuits. Our four horse trailer entered nearby I-64, off to show at least two weekends of each month during show season. My son, a commercial real estate broker in Washington, DC, frequently visited to hunt, fly fish and climb and hike in the National Forest. The whole family loved to shoot and did it frequently, in the safety of our 90 acres. During warm weather, cookouts were enjoyed on a platform by the stream. Hotdogs, and trout tasted better when grilled and eaten by a trout stream. Huge campfires under star filled skies ended perfect days when grandchildren came for riding lessons and then swam and fished in the clear waters of Dunlap Creek, then spend nights with granddad in the Cabela tent erected streamside each summer.

The grandchildren are older now, some are in high school, but all remember the magic and excitement they felt after a cookout and dancing around a bonfire, they entered a tent fearing possible visits from bears, only to wake up to a misty morning, the tent surrounded by a herd of deer grazing on a lush hay field. Hearts racing, they dashed into the National Forest. Of course breakfast was cooked and served beside a clear trout stream. Some moments are priceless and will be remembered for a lifetime by children, grandchildren and grandparents alike.

During my years at Dunlap Crossing I was a busy plastic surgeon and found that mowing hay fields and paddocks on my big tractor, working horses, fly fishing with children, riding an ATV with grandchildren or enjoying the sunsets over the National Forest with my wife were wonderful ways to unwind from the pressures and anxieties of work. I only wish I could have opened that gate earlier and enjoyed the magic longer. Flushed deer and turkeys running beside my tractor were icing on the cake. Dunlap Crossing now needs new owners to act out their dreams on 90 acres pierced by a trout stream and backed up to a National Forest.

TAXES AND DEED INFORMATION

The property is located in the county of Allegheny in the state of Virginia with an address of:

2217 Kanawha Trail

Covington, VA 24426

The property is assessed in the Boiling Springs District, Tax Map 79, Parcel 90. The deed is recorded in the offices of the Allegheny County Clerk in Deed Book 448, Page 460.

This property is offered in cooperation with Highlands Realty, Peggy Doyle, Broker.

May your bucks have trophy racks.

May your stalls be filled with champions.

And may your fish be painted like rainbows.

If interested come visit-

The adventure begins when the Dunlap Crossing gate opens for you.