Students will examine the changing use of the same landscape, the cultural traditions applied and lost by manmade conditions to language, identity, and natural species and resources. Collectively they will examine solutions to preserve and reasons to protect cultural and environmental heritage. 

At Menokin, we often reference the cultural landscape as the history of the many people who lived and labored on this land.  The Chesapeake Bay is bound by Maryland and Virginia peninsulas. Four of these peninsulas form Virginia’s “tidewater region”, also sometimes called the Chesapeake Lowlands. The defining natural features of the Northern Neck peninsula include forests of pine, oak, and poplar; miles of farmland; sandstone cliffs; and three waterways- the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. The rivers and tributaries combine to create a peninsula that is nearly as much water as land. There is a rich biodiversity of native flora and fauna like wild rice, witch hazel, blueberries, cordgrass, deer, raccoons, eagles, oysters and rockfish. 

Humans have accessed the natural resources of this landscape for thousands of years. We know this because of the evidence left within the layers of soil. The earth holds the memory of previous cultures. Archaeology has revealed artifacts of pottery, pipe stems, and bricks made by transforming the clay soil into vessels and building materials. The soil holds ghost markings of post holes and fence lines made of timber. Objects of man-made metal and shells tell stories of the creative ingenuity of humankind. Conservation of the land preserves the natural world as well as the history of the anthropological world. 

Historic preservation- which includes architecture, land, and objects is necessary to understand the past fully and build a promising future. Preserving the walls of the Menokin ruin, as a ruin, exposes the friction between host and guest, history and future, and those who have been historically pushed to the margins, and hold stories that will center our future.