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 ...

of Newport News in the Virginia Peninsula area of the

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond, and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point near whe ...

region of southeastern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

in the United States. It is a tributary of the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

Early history 17th-19th centuries

In the early 17th century, Skiffe's Creek bordered Martin's Hundred, a proprietary settlement dating to 1618 in the British

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

. The creek formed one of the borders between James City Shire and Warwick Shire when they were formed in 1634 by the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

as directed by King Charles I. They were two of the eight original shires of Virginia. For over 300 years, Skiffe's Creek was part of the boundary between James City County and Warwick County. Early speaker of the

Thomas Harwood established the Queen Hith plantation on both sides of Skiffe's Creek, and his descendants for generations kept it as their family seat, until great-great-grandson William Harwood finished Endview Plantation in 1769, and moved his family there. Upon the consolidation of Warwick County into the city of Newport News in 1958, both plantations became part of the city, which acquiredthe Endview plantation in 1995 and how operates it and two other house museums. The creek continues to be the dividing line between the two political subdivisions of Virginia. In 1881, Skiffe's Creek was bridged by a trestle of the new Peninsula Subdivision. Collis P. Huntington led the development of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway through the new Church Hill Tunnel and down the Virginia Peninsula through Williamsburg where it finally reached

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. 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 does over 125 years later under successor

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

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

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 and James City County. The regional water system, which initially included an impingement of the Warwick River in western Warwick County, was begun as a project of Collis P. Huntington as part of the development of the lower peninsula with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, the

s on the harbor of

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

19th-21st centuries

In the early 20th century, Skiffe's Creek was bridged by U.S. Route 60. Today, most through traffic uses the Interstate 64 or State Route 143. Route 60 primarily links local traffic between the Grove community of southeastern James City County and the Lee Hall community of Newport News. Both communities are attempting to retain their rural appearance even as their respective localities are both being developed. Additionally, a small portion of the expansive Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is in the Skiffe's Creek watershed. In the late 20th century, the rural two story frame depot at Lee Hall was saved from demolition by rail enthusiast 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