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The late historian, preservationist and Marshall Foundation official Royster Lyle Jr. is the author of a newly published article about the crusade in 1969-71 to save Goshen Pass and Marble Valley from being flooded to create two electricitygenerating dams.
The article, “Marble Valley and Other Thoughts About Dams,” appears in the online history journal “Rockbridge Epilogues.” It is based on a talk Lyle gave in 1969 to the Garden Club of Virginia in Richmond, but his real audience consisted of state policy-makers and opinion leaders. The garden club was an apt sponsor because its members had been unrelenting and effective activists against earlier efforts to develop and “improve” Goshen Pass.
The scheme, proposed by Vepco, predecessor of Dominion Energy, would have created two hydroelectric dams, with Marble Valley and the Calfpasture River above Goshen Pass flooded to create a lake from which water would be pumped to the upper dam for timed release. Opponents led by Lyle argued that the power was not needed and that dams were being built around the country mainly for the sake of building dams.
The project was finally scuttled in 1971 when Vepco said it discovered geologic faults that made the lake impractical. It was generally understood that the company was relieved to find a way out of the controversy.
In a 31-year career at the George C. Marshall Research Foundation, Lyle was curator of the Marshall Museum, associate director of the Marshall Library and secretary of the Marshall Foundation. He was a founder of Historic Lexington Foundation, co-author of “The Architecture of Historic Lexington” and leader of the effort that in 1971 created Lexington’s Historic District and earned it a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
His article can be found at www.HistoricRockbridge. org. The “Epilogues” series, endorsed by the historic foundation and the Rockbridge Historical Society, publishes articles of local importance that are not in print elsewhere.
