Bath has a small number of people, and a considerable share of this small number is a new element. To many individuals of the latter class a history of the county will appeal very little. For the above reasons we confine ourselves to a presentation of the more striking and important features in the story of this county. But if, in a commercial sense, this county seemed only a moderately promising field for a local history, it remains very true that Bath is one of the best known counties of the Old Dominion. It is one of the older counties in the Alleghany belt, and it lies on a natural highway of travel and commerce. The story of its evolution is one of much interest. -- Foreword.

Named for its restorative mineral springs, Bath County has been a popular tourist destination since the mid-18th Century. Visitors, and those who call it home, are charmed by its bucolic beauty-rolling meadows, pristine rivers, and ancient, cozy mountains. Experience day-to-day life, as well as the allure of the springs and their adjacent grand hotels, by leafing through the past in this volume of 200 photographs, many never before published. Visit "The Hot," "The Warm," "The Healing," Bath Alum and Millboro Springs as they once were. See the gentry who paid small fortunes to "take the waters," and the generations who served them with grace. Our breathtaking views may seem to have changed little through the years; these photos show just how different the view over Warm Springs Gap was a century ago, just how Hot Springs appeared when Main Street was barely more than a flower-filled field. Bath's proud, independent, industrious population is shown at work and play, at school and church, at home on the porch. Fabled, long-gone faces once again come into focus, while those still enjoying life here today are captured in childhood, or the glow of youth.

The Virginia Landmarks Register, fourth edition, will create for the reader a deeper awareness of a unique legacy and will serve to enhance the stewardship of Virginia's irreplaceable heritage.