- McCormick Farm A five-acre memorial plot at the Shenandoah AREC pays tribute to Cyrus McCormick and the ingenuity of the McCormick family. The memorial area is designated a National Historic Landmark and Virginia Wayside site, and is toured by thousands of visitors every year. Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the first sucessful reaper and founded the harvesting machine industry. In July 1831, at ...www.vaes.vt.edu/steeles/mccormick/mccormick.html