Welcome to... York County Virginia |
The summer of 2003 my family and I went on vacation to visit Williamsburg, at least
that was the plan. Now myself, I'm the kind of person who packs two weeks ahead
of time, so of course I went online to see what I could find out about Williamsburg,
Jamestown and Yorktown. I couldn't seem to find very much, from a tourists
point of view, so I went to my back up source, the AAA Auto Club. I picked
up a book for Virginia, found the section covering the three towns and started
to read. The more I read, the more I discovered how little I knew and the more
I wanted to know. Now, we've all had vacations and trips that were disappointing. Our expectations were high and the reality failed miserably. This was not the case with this trip. My expectations came no-where near the beauty and wonder of the reality. I thought I knew what to expect - how wrong I was! I hope that people seeing these pages will go out of their way to visit these wonderful historical sites, you won't be disappointed. I would suggest one thing above all else, give yourself plenty of time. A week would be good, you might get to see it all. So far we've split our trip up into two different visits, if you don't count the time I took for pictures, it would have taken us three days so far. We have another visit planned soon for the rest of Yorktown, the Yorktown Victory Center and Williamsburg, we figure at least three more days maybe four. That's without visiting the beautiful plantation houses in the area, I can't even guess how long that would take, because there are a lot. I really hope that these pages help someone in their research and you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the visit. As I mentioned, we haven't finished our "vacation" so the pages here are not complete, we still have Yorktown, Yorktown Victory Center and Williamsburg to visit. I want to thank all the National Park personnel, the members of the Living History Museum as well as the other folks at the other places we visited, everyone was wonderful, helpful and very nice! :) |
Down the Colonial Highway.... |
... to Yorktown |
Jones Mill Pond This mill pond and the mill dam (now covered by the Colonial Parkway) show on Civil War maps, and may have existed in Colonial times. |
A Union Advance On May 5, 1862 Lt. George A Custer (who in 1876 made his "Last Stand" on the Little Bighorn River in Montana) led a detachment along the roadway here over "Cub Dam Creek" to occupy the Confederate work on the bluff immediately beyond. This maneuver in the Battle of Williamsburg came as the Union Army advanced toward Richmond in the Peninsular Campaign. |
Kings Creek |
Ringfield Plantation The land across this creek was first granted to Captain Robert Felgate in 1630. Sixty years later it was acquired by Joesph Rign, a prosperous planter and one of the trustees of the Town of York when it was founded in 1691. Ring's plantation house stood for over two centuries approximately one mile to the west. |
Nathaniel Bacon Among the tombs in the burial ground of the Ringfield family is a marker to Colonial Nathaniel Bacon who was prominent in Virginia affairs in the last half of the seventeenth century. He was a kinsman but an opponent of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. - "the Rebel" - who led his forces against Governor Sir William Berkeley in 1676. |
Cheatham Annex The piers and structures across the water are an extension of the Naval Base at Norfolk. This takes advantage of the excellent York River deep water channel as did Cornwallis when, in 1781, he chose Yorktown as his base. |
Bellfield Plantation The Bellfield house site and graveyard are located some 300 yards to the east. This was the home of two early Virginia governors, Captain John West in 1632 and Edward Digges who bought the property from West in 1650. Here Digges produced superior tobacco and let attempts to develop silk culture in the colony. |
Indian Field Creek The ground to the south along this creek was the home of the Chiskiack Indians, a small tribe whose leader was a "werowance," or petty chief, under Powhatan. As the English began to settle this area, about 1630, the Chiskiacks moved across the York River into the present Gloucester County. |
Powhatan's Village Across the York River is the site of Werowocomoco, an Indian Village that was Powhatan's "chiefest habitation" in the early period of the Jamestown settlement. Captain John Smith was a prisoner there late in 1607. |
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