Werowocomoco NPS Acquisition

Werowocomoco, a major American Indian site of international significance in Virginia, has been acquired by the National Park Service .

Werowocomoco was the location of the Powhatan Chiefdom during the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607 and where Captain John Smith met Pocahontas following his capture.

With the support of landowners, the Commonwealth of Virginia and Virginia Indian Tribes, The Conservation Fund facilitated the purchase of the 264-acre site in Gloucester County along the York River for the National Park Service earlier this year with funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

“The addition of Werowocomoco to the National Park Service will help tell an important part of our Nation’s history,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “As one of the most important American Indian sites in the eastern United States, the protection, study and interpretation of Werowocomoco, in conjunction with tribes in the region, will bring this important story of the Nation’s indigenous people to life in the National Park Service’s second century.”

Werowocomoco will be managed by NPS through their Chesapeake office. The property is now the Park Service’s first land holding for the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.

source: U.S. Department of the Interior