Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

A group of officials and Ingles family descendants visits the Ingles Ferry Tavern buildings, which are located across the New River from Radford. The visitors were family members Mike Barbour and Mary Ingles Barbour; Ruth Babylon, a conservation easement specialist; and Beth Obenshain of New River Land Trust.

After more than seven years of work, state and local officials and descendants of Mary Draper Ingles have placed a protective easement on the Ingles Ferry Farm in Pulaski County, one of Southwest Virginia's significant historical sites.

The farm's owners, all direct descendants of Ingles, donated a permanent conservation easement to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The easement was recorded Aug. 18 and will be funded through the Virginia Land Conversation Fund.

Ingles settled at the property following her heroic trek home from near present-day Ohio after she was taken captive by Shawnee warriors during the Massacre at Drapers Meadow.

The 313-acre farm on the New River was settled by Ingles and her husband, William, in the late 1750s. The property includes the Ingles Ferry Tavern, remains of the Ingles Ferry and remnants of the Ingles Ferry covered bridge.

Across the river, opposite the tavern and farm, rests the actual home of the Ingleses, now owned by Lewis Ingles "Bud" Jeffries. An easement was placed on that property in 2002.

The farm "is one of those historic sites that ranks right up there with the Shirley Plantation," David Jones of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources said, referring to the oldest family-owned business in North America that dates to 1638.

"It's so significant to find a property that has been in the same family for so many generations."

In 2002, Roberta Ingles Steele, one of the family owners, contacted the New River Land Trust and started the easement process.

Mary Barbour, Steele's niece, said Steele was determined to preserve the family's history.

"Roberta was the historian of the family and the person really behind the restoration of the property," said Barbour, Mary Draper Ingles' fifth great-granddaughter.

"This was her baby."

Steele had been diagnosed with cancer in 2002 and was unable to tend to the property as she had done in the past.

She died in 2004, and Barbour, her husband and other relatives took the responsibility of carrying on Steele's dream. In 2007, the land trust applied for a state grant to protect the tavern and farm.

Beth Obenshain, executive director of the trust, said the Ingles' property was the highest priority on the Virginia Land Conservation Fund's list, outranking Montpelier, the home of former President James Madison.

Because of differing opinions of those involved, it took more than seven years for the easement to be approved.

"Anytime you have a valuable piece of property and different people involved with it, there are bound to be differences in needs and priorities," Obenshain said. "It takes so much time, commitment and energy to take on a project like this."

Through the protective easement, the land will be protected from intense development and remain privately owned. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources requires the property to be opened to the public once a year for educational purposes.

Ruth Babylon, a conservation easement specialist for the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, said the easement does allow the property owners to divide the land into as many as three pieces and build up to six houses on it.

Barbour said she is excited to finally see a piece of her childhood history protected and secured for future generations.

"If this land was to ever fall out of our families hands, these restrictions would still be in place," she said. "Roberta would be tickled to death to see this today."