Jack-O-Lantern Branch Heritage Trail
In addition to the Plantation Trail, the monument provides an opportunity for a 1½ mile meandering walk through fields and forests on the Jack-O-Lantern Branch Trail.
The Jack-O-Lantern Branch Trail, which gets its name from a creek, or “branch,” is a 1.6-mile loop trail. However, to reach it you must first hike the Plantation Trail, a half-mile loop trail. The Plantation Trail is the one to hike if you want to tour the Burroughs Farm where Booker T. Washington was born, whereas the Jack-O-Lantern Branch Trail offers no insight into Washington’s life or the farm and is for exercise purposes only.
The Jack-O-Lantern Branch Trail is a former road, so it is a wide gravel path the entire way around. The surface is smooth, so you don’t have to worry about tripping over rocks and roots.
The trail follows Jack-O-Lantern Branch, a small creek, and remains level during this time. However, things begin to change about .6 mile from the tobacco barn at an intersection with a shortcut trail. Beyond this point the terrain becomes very hilly, so if you take the shortcut over to the other side of the loop you can avoid this moderately strenuous portion of the trail.
