It has been said that “to plant a tree is an act of faith in the future.” The leaders of Botetourt County figuratively planted a tree and proclaimed their faith in the future when they decided in the mid-1990s to purchase 923 acres at the headwaters of Tinker Creek, in the county’s Amsterdam area. Their intention was to develop a business park.
It was a decision that was not greeted with universal acclaim. After all, it was indeed located at the headwaters of Tinker Creek! The area boasted prehistoric findings dating to the Cambrian period; it was an important hunting ground for Native Americans. In the mid-1700s, it was home to dozens of enslaved persons who supported a flourishing commercial, agricultural and educational center called Greenfield. Greenfield was the home of William Preston, Colonel of the Virginia Militia and the Continental Army.
To top that off, the site was an area of stunning beauty, ringed by mountains, softened by meadows and sustained by bold streams.
Why on earth would a local government want to mess with that?
The answer is “faith in the future.”
Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, metaphorically envisioned the future when she wrote, upon viewing the flow of Tinker Creek, “I look up the creek and here it comes, the future … if you look up the creek in any weather, your spirit fills, and you are saying, with an exulting rise of the lungs, ‘Here it comes!’”
The future.
Despite controversy and well-intended opposition — it was one of the most robustly debated county issues in memory at the time — county leadership embraced the future and proceeded with purchasing the 923 acres, insistent that, as one county supervisor declared, “if we are going to do this, we are going to do it right.”
And they did “do it right,” as successive Botetourt administrators and supervisors continued to do, maintaining lofty standards and being highly selective with the companies invited to locate at Botetourt Center at Greenfield.
During the economic downturn of the early 2000s, few companies were considering new facilities; thus, there was little activity at Greenfield. As a result, many were the demands on county officials to “sell it, unload that turkey!” But the officials stood firm, confident in practicing the Art of the Long View.
The result today is a flourishing commerce park that hosts five thriving companies and that accounts for more than a million dollars annually in tax revenue. It statutorily protects Botetourt’s beauty and treasured history. Importantly, it is a foil to what would have occurred had the 923 acres gone on the open market: residential development indifferent to the grandeur of the land and dismissive of the finances of the county.
Now, thirty years after declaring its manifest confidence in the future, Botetourt County welcomes Google to Greenfield. A crowning achievement, this ushers in a new era of global competitiveness for the Roanoke Valley. It catalyzes countless spin-off business opportunities for the region. And it confirms Virginia’s claim as the “Data Center Capital of the World.”
Interestingly, Google’s arrival demands a refocusing of the Long View. It is a tap on the shoulder for county officials to contemplate newly unlocked, far-reaching opportunities scarcely imaginable today, but hurtling toward us at breakneck speed.
The Future.
Here it comes.
Steve Clinton has represented the Amsterdam District on the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors from 1999 to 2012 and from 2016 to the present, including six terms as chair.
