Encompassing over 23,000 acres in the horse and hunt countryside of northeastern Fauquier County in northern Virginia, the Little River Rural Historic District retains an abundant array of nearly 1,500 historic dwellings and agricultural buildings that date from the late 18th century through the 20th century. The buildings include finely-constructed, vernacular log, frame, and stone houses, smokehouses, bank barns, and structures such as bridges, stone fences and walls, and the ruins of three stone gristmills, a sawmill, and a distillery, as well as cemeteries and historic road traces. Initially land owners who settled the Little River district subsisted on orchards, Indian corn, and livestock until improved transportation networks opened access to markets in Haymarket and Alexandria. In 1903, the Orange County Hunt from Goshen, NY, relocated to the area, fostering a hunt and horse industry that transformed the district during the 20th century. Former working farms became gentry estates where horse breeding, racehorse training, and dressage exercises occurred, along with foxhunting by wealthy land owners who made Middleburg the heart of hunt country. The Little River Rural Historic District also contains 760 acres affiliated with the Civil War Battle of Middleburg, an important cavalry battle that occurred on June 19, 1863.