Full Immersion at the Rivanna

REMEMBRANCES OF MARY LEE SETTLE Full Immersion at the Rivanna_________ Justin A. Sarafin On December 12, 2003, in keeping with Mary Lee's full-immersion style of researching her books, while in residence as a Fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies, she convinced a small group of us at Monticello to show her the Shadwell site, where Peter Jefferson's house had burned when Thomas was still a boy. It is this pre-fire period she was writing about in Tom. Lead by Peter Hatch, the Director of Gardens and Grounds at Monticello, and at Mary Lee's request, the site visit very quickly turned into an unabashed hike through the woods, ending up on the north side of the Rivanna River at a Jefferson mill site, across the water from the bulk of the original Monticello plantationlandholdings. JoinedbyAndrew O'Shaughnessy and Kathryn Knisley both from the International Center, and Mary Lee's dog, Desmond, we made our way toward the river through red Albemarle County mud and underbrush. Despite being in her mid eighties, Mary Lee climbed over the barbed wire fence—her long legs far more useful than my short ones for the same task—and then we followed the railroad tracks for several hundred feet until we found a clear spot to slide down the embankment on the other side. I think we all lost our footing at least once during the descent to the river, but there were no serious injuries. When we finally reached the banks of the mighty Rivanna, the sun was glinting off the water below making it hard not to take an underexposed group picture. Mary Lee propped her found walking stick against a fallen log, sat down with Desmond, and surveyed the scene that had once been a center for Jeffersonian plantation industry and trade in the Piedmont. Now it was the perfect place to contemplate Jefferson himself, for Mary Lee to think about what and who influenced Jefferson as a youth. Back at Mary Lee's Jeep, muddy and slightly scratched, we commended ourselves on our outdoorsy abilities and left the Shadwell site for a BBQ lunch in Charlottesville. 35 ...