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33 The Weeks Farm, Harnett County conservation easement purchased by the Sandhills Area Land Trust and Averasboro Battlefield Commission with assistance from The Conservation Fund In 1865 a fierce battle was fought on this farmland. Today it is a scene of fertile agricultural fields, but with reminders of the adjacent Civil War memorial cemetery and historical museum. The grant awarded from the NC Farmland Preservation Trust Fund enables the purchase of a conservation easement over approximately 75 acres of the 600 acre Weeks Farm, Inc., of Dunn, at 50 percent of the appraised value of the development rights. The Weeks are donating half of the value of the non -farm development rights and have indicated willingness to extend conservation easements over more of the farm in the future. Not only will this easement ensure protection of highly productive agricultural land (which is composed of prime agricultural soils), but also the farm composes the heart of the Averasboro Civil War Battlefield. This protection project serves as a cornerstone in the broader protection efforts to defend the larger battlefield and adjoining Cape Fear River Bluffs natural area from undesirable development. The easement will preserve agriculture as an alternative to the residential subdivision development and industrial warehouse construction that has occurred nearby. The farm produces row crop small grain corn and soybeans. The property protected by this easement was the location of the central combat action on the Confederate army's third and final defensive line during the March 15 -16, 1865, Battle of Averasboro. The property under easement is adjacent to, and surrounds on three sides, the Chicora Civil War Cemetery (burial site of 56 Confederate soldiers) and is immediately across NC Hwy 82 from the existing state historical museum. That highway exactly follows the path of the plank Fayetteville- Raleigh road dating from colonial times. Until the purchase in 1981 by the present owners, this land was owned by family descendants of the owners of an 8,300 -acre 18`" and 19'' century plantation . This farm protection project was endorsed by the NC Department of Cultural Resources, the Harnett County Planning Office, the Soil and Water Conservation District, and local Farm Services agent.