New Hampden is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Highland County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, United States. New Hampden is located in the Blue Grass Valley on VA State Route 640 approximately north of Monterey, Virginia. The community is situated on the banks of the

South Branch Potomac River The South Branch Potomac River has its River source, headwaters in northwestern Highland County, Virginia, near Hightown, Virginia, Hightown along the eastern edge of the Allegheny Front. After a river distance of ,U.S. Geological Survey. Nationa ...

west of the northern end of Monterey Mountain and southwest of the community of

Blue Grass, Virginia Blue Grass is an unincorporated community on VA 642 at its junction with VA 640 in Highland County, Virginia, United States. Blue Grass lies along the South Branch Potomac River and is located approximately north of Monterey, Virginia. It was ...

and the Devils Backbone rock outcrop. The community appeared around 1858 and is characterized as having a "regular appearance" in contrast to more haphazardly developed villages. Oren, 1911, p. 161. West of New Hampden is the site of a

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

quarry used by Native Americans to procure sources of flint for the production of arrowheads. Some accounts state that the area was of such importance that it was considered to be neutral ground by the native tribes. Oren, 1911, p. 33. Located in New Hampden is a historic

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

that began operations around 1816-1817 and ceased in 1944. The structure, originally known as the Rexrode Mill, still stands to the present day. ''With accompanyin
photographs
'

References

Bibliography

* Unincorporated communities in Highland County, Virginia Unincorporated communities in Virginia {{HighlandCountyVA-geo-stub