Skiffe's Creek is located in James City County and the

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

in the

Virginia Peninsula The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the n ...

area of the

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic ...

region of southeastern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is a tributary of the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesap ...

Early history 17th-19th centuries

In the early 17th century, Skiffe's Creek bordered

Martin's Hundred Martin's Hundred was an early 17th-century plantation located along about ten miles (16 km) of the north shore of the James River in the Virginia Colony east of Jamestown in the southeastern portion of present-day James City County, Virgin ...

, a proprietary settlement dating to 1618 in the British

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (histor ...

. The creek formed one of the borders between

James City Shire James City Shire was formed in the British colony of Virginia in 1634. During the 17th century, shortly after establishment of Jamestown in 1607, English settlers explored and began settling the areas adjacent to Hampton Roads. On, November 18, 1 ...

and Warwick Shire when they were formed in 1634 by the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been establishe ...

as directed by King Charles I as two of the eight original

shires of Virginia The eight Shires of Virginia were formed in 1634 in the Virginia Colony. These shires were based on a form of local government used in England at the time, and were redesignated as counties a few years later. As of 2007, five of the eight original ...

. For over 300 years it was part of the boundary between James City County and Warwick County. The latter consolidated into the city of Newport News in 1958. The creek continues to be the dividing line between the two

political subdivisions of Virginia The administrative divisions of Virginia are the areas into which the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state, is divided for political and administrative purposes. Some are local governments; others are not. However, all local governments (count ...

. In 1881, Skiffe's Creek was bridged by a trestle of the new Peninsula Subdivision as the

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested i ...

led the development of the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

through the new Church Hill Tunnel and down the

through Williamsburg to reach

coal pier A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship. The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into ...

s located on the harbor

, the East Coast of the United States' largest

ice-free port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

. During the ten years from 1878 to 1888, C&O's coal resources began to be developed and shipped eastward. Coal became a staple of the C&O's business at that time, and still did over 125 years later under successor

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

. About 2 miles east of the Skiffe's Creek crossing, the Lee Hall depot was built in 1881-82, and later expanded. The station served tens of thousands of soldiers based at what became nearby Fort Eustis during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Skiffe's Creek Reservoir

Skiffe's Creek Reservoir is a portion of the Newport News Waterworks, a regional water provider, owned and operated by the City of Newport News, that serves over 400,000 people in the cities of Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, and portions of York County and James City County. The regional water system, which included initially an impingement of the Warwick River in western Warwick County, was begun as a project of

as part of the development of the lower peninsula with the

, the

s on the harbor of

, and massive shipyard which were the major sources of industrial growth which helped found Newport News as a new independent city in 1896.

19th-21st centuries

In the early 20th century, Skiffe's Creek was bridged by the new U.S. Route 60. In modern times, most through traffic uses the nearby four-laned

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchang ...

or State Route 143. Two-laned Route 60 now primarily links local traffic between the Grove community of southeastern James City County and the Lee Hall community of Newport News, with each attempting to retain some of their rural aspects as their respective localities are more fully developed. A small portion of the expansive

Naval Weapons Station Yorktown Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is a United States Navy base in York County, James City County, and Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It provided a weapons and ammunition storage and loading facility for ships of the United ...

is in the Skiffe's Creek watershed. In the late 20th century, the larger-than-normal rural two story frame depot at Lee Hall was saved from demolition and is highly valued by rail fans and rail preservationists. In June 2007, a CSX hopper train derailed at the Skiffe's Creek Trestle, with no injuries.

References

External links

James City County Watersheds

Newport News Waterworks
{{authority control Rivers of James City County, Virginia Rivers of Virginia Tributaries of the James River Bodies of water of Newport News, Virginia

Early history 17th-19th centuries

Skiffe's Creek Reservoir

19th-21st centuries

See also

References

External links