Facilities and Resources

Radford University welcomes students, faculty, alumni, families and visitors to consider Selu Conservancy for your next meeting or adventure! Explore the photo gallery and space descriptions below for more information.

Activities at Selu

• 90-foot-long pier and boathouse along the Little River
• Canoes available for a nominal rental fee
• River trail and overlook, accessible to all Selu visitors
• Native Grassland Wildlife Trail, which traverses three types of habitat: prairie (also called meadow), edge and oak-hickory forest
• Challenge Course
• Interpretive tours of the Farm at Selu

The Retreat Center
For your next meeting, picture yourself on a wrap-around porch with views of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains.  Or take advantage of the meeting rooms inside the Retreat Center.  Highlights of the comfortable interior include antler chandeliers hanging among exposed timber frame beams, two stone fireplaces and hardwood floors.  Hand-crafted design elements and original art, including yarn paintings from Mexican Huichol natives, add to the Retreat Center's enriching atmosphere.

The Barn
This multi-functional building, attached to the Observatory, was designed by Martin & Company Architects of Radford Virginia and completed in 2000. It functions as a Conference and Event Center as well as an educational building. The exterior of the facility replicates a vintage agricultural appearance, in keeping with the rest of the buildings on the Selu property.

For more information contact selu@radford.edu.

The Farm
The Farm at Selu was dedicated in July 2006 and was the second phase of the planning for Selu Conservancy, which opened in fall 1997. Volunteers and friends of the Appalachian Studies program at Radford University interpret farm and home life for university students, public and private schools in the region, and community residents. Eight volunteers conduct tours, with each group spending 20 minutes at each of several stations in and outside the farmhouse.

Visitors to the replicated 1930s homestead on Radford University’s 380-acre Selu conservancy can now “hear,” as well as see, what life was like for a typical 1930s family, thanks to volunteers who helped restore an antique radio and produce a CD featuring music, commercials, and speeches of that era.

Ricky Cox, the farm’s former tour director, wanted visitors to have an intimate connection with the era as they tour the Farm at Selu. Radford resident and retired Kollmorgen Corporation engineer Ken Olsen designed and built a power supply for the 1930s radio so visitors could experience the hum and crackle of tube-amplified AM radio.

Professor Emeritus of Communication Clay Waite became interested in helping and the project gained momentum when Waite listed the aid of university staff members Ashlee Claud, Jon Benfield and then student-worker Calvin Pynn.

Waite and Benfield sought out public domain recordings from the glory days of the Grand Ole Opry, the Lone Ranger radio program, commercials, and a speech by President Roosevelt. The CD plays in the background when visitors take the self-guided tour of the farmhouse.

For more information on the Farm at Selu, please contact the Appalachian Regional & Rural Studies Center at 540-831-5366.

The Teams Course
The Selu Teams Course is operated by RU ABLE and provides structured programs for schools, non-profit groups, businesses and teams of all types.  The programs include staff development, team building and education-based services.  Programs range from 1-6 hours and take place on the teams course, which is easily accessible and located in a natural wooded setting.  Programming is also available in and outside the Barn, a beautiful multipurpose building.

To learn more about the Teams Course, please contact Fred Pierson, Director of the Radford University Experiential Learning Lab, at 540-831-7721 or jkpierson@radford.edu