The property includes the Henry Connor Bost house and farmstead, as well as remnants of the old Salisbury-to-Mocksville wagon road. It is located 1.5 miles from the recently acquired 300-acre Catawba College South Yadkin Wildlife Refuge.

Land trust officials say the Lomax gift of a conservation easement is a major step in efforts by the college and land trust to preserve additional acreage along the river corridor.

“Once again, a family in Rowan County has stepped forward and provided the leadership to protect one of our more important historic resources,” Ed Clement, president of the land trust, said in a press release.

“What is exciting for those of us who have been working on preservation issues in this community is that people are beginning to see the connection between historic preservation and the conservation of our rural landscapes.”

The conservation easement will maintain the property’s open space character by reducing the number and location of new houses that can be built there. It also limits the scope of timber harvesting, assuring a relatively natural habitat for wildlife and helping to protect the water quality of the watershed.

As part of the conservation easement, the Henry Connor Bost house will be protected. According to Davyd Foard Hood’s architectural history of Rowan County, it is “one of the few homes built in Rowan County immediately following the Civil War.”

Bost served in Company F of the 9th Regiment Calvary of the Confederate Army and was later elected to the N.C. Legislature to serve Rowan County.

The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The old Salisbury-to-Mocksville wagon road is still visible across the property, according to the land trust. The market road dates back to at least the early 19th century.

Early maps show the road linking Salisbury to the historic Moravian community of Bethania, near Salem.

Dr. John Wear Jr., director of Catawba College’s Center for the Environment, praised the Lomaxes for setting a precedent for other private landowners near the South Yadkin Wildlife Refuge.

Several years ago, the Lomaxes completed a restoration of the Bost house as their primary residence.