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Long Valley Farm

Mill Pavillion, Long Valley Farm
Mill Pavillion at Long Valley Farm
© Rick Studenmund

LOCATION:
Sandhills
Harnett and Cumberland Counties

SIZE IN ACRES:
1,380

TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP:
Topographical maps are available by contacting:

NC Geographical Survey
1612 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1612
(919) 715-9718
www.geology.enr.state.nc.us/

OWNERSHIP & ACCESS:
Long Valley Farm is owned by
The Nature Conservancy, which will soon undertake an inventory and determine whether to retain the property as a nature preserve or transfer to a suitable partner for management. The property will not be open to the public during the Conservancy’s planning phase.

SITE INFORMATION:
James Stillman Rockefeller, the longtime owner of Long Valley Farm, passed away in 2004 at age 102. He greatly desired to see the farm permanently protected from development, and so bequeathed the property to The Nature Conservancy in his will. In the 1920s, Long Valley Farm was originally established as part of the Overhills estate by Rockefeller's uncle Percy. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Approximately two-thirds of Long Valley Farm's 1,380 acres are wooded, with the remainder comprised of pasture and farm fields and a number of structures, including a large home used by Rockefeller. Over the many years the property belonged to the Rockefeller family, it produced everything from cattle and tobacco to timber and turpentine.

The property is located in the Sandhills region of North Carolina and is bisected by Jumping Run Creek, which flows into the Little River in Cumberland County. It is bordered on two sides by Fort Bragg Military Reservation. 

CONSERVATION HIGHLIGHTS:
When biologists from the Conservancy and the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program inventoried the property in 2002, they found a number of interesting natural areas, from healthy stands of longleaf pine to a cypress-gum swamp with canopy trees 100 feet tall and wet meadows that support a number of carnivorous plant species such as pitcher plants and sundews. Long Valley Farm supports rare bird species as well: Bachmann’s sparrow and the loggerhead shrike have been observed on the property, as has the federally listed red-cockaded woodpecker. The Eastern fox squirrel is also present.

Long Valley Farm adds important habitat to augment The Nature Conservancy's landscape conservation plans in the Sandhills region. The Conservancy works to conserve longleaf pine habitat in the Sandhills, “bridging the gap” between already protected lands at Fort Bragg, Camp Mackall and the Sandhills Game Land. The North Carolina Chapter has protected several key tracts in the Sandhills to date, including the 2,500-acre Calloway Forest/NC Department of Transportation mitigation tract and the 1,182-acre Carvers Creek tract, both of which feature healthy longleaf pine communities in close proximity to Fort Bragg.