Qualla: Natural Chimneys

Natural Chimneys: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kcstanfield, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the third Saturday of August, knights ride at Mount Solon. Since 1821, the Natural Chimneys Jousting Tournament has been held at the foot of seven enormous limestone towers in Augusta County, Virginia - making it the oldest continuously held sporting event in the United States. It started before photography, before the telegraph, before the Civil War. The jousts themselves are not the medieval kind. They feature running at the ring - riders galloping at full speed past a small suspended ring and trying to spear it with a lance. The towers, called the Cyclopean Towers in the 19th century, watch the proceedings as they have watched everything else: silently, slowly diminishing in each rainstorm.

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Image: Kcstanfield | CC BY-SA 4.0

Natural Chimneys: Limestone, Time, and Water

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY-SA 3.0. The limestone that became Natural Chimneys began as marine sediment around 500 million years ago, in the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era - a time when this part of Virginia lay beneath a warm shallow tropical sea. Calcium carbonate from the shells of marine organisms accumul...

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Image: Jarek Tuszyński | CC BY-SA 3.0

Natural Chimneys: Seven Chimneys

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Karen Nutini, CC BY-SA 3.0. The seven chimneys at the site range from 65 feet to over 120 feet tall - true towers, with vertical limestone walls weathered into ledges, cracks, and the occasional ledge garden of mosses and ferns. From below, the formation has the visual logic of a ruined fortress, which is w...

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Image: Karen Nutini | CC BY-SA 3.0

Natural Chimneys: The Tournament

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit henristosch, CC BY-SA 2.0 de. The annual jousting tournament dates to 1821, predating most of the institutional fixtures in American sport. Held in continuous form across two centuries - through the Civil War, both World Wars, the Great Depression, and the COVID-19 pandemic - it features the sport of running ...

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Image: henristosch | CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Natural Chimneys: Camping, Running, Music

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY-SA 3.0. Natural Chimneys is a regional park owned and operated by Augusta County, with a 165-site campground, a swimming pool, a playground, and hiking trails along the adjacent North River. The Grindstone 100 - a hundred-mile trail race held each fall through the surrounding George Wash...

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Image: Jarek Tuszyński | CC BY-SA 3.0