Citie of Henricus

Today I visited the historic Citie of Henricus in Chesterfield County. Founded in 1611, Henricus was the second permanent settlement in Virginia. The city was started by Sir Thomas Dale, on instructions from the London company when they wanted a more suitable location for a colony than the swampy land at Jamestown. It is in the same area where Pocahontas grew up, and is situated on a bluff overlooking a beautiful part of the James River.

To get to Henricus from Richmond is almost a straight shot down 95 South. As I got closer to the historic site, the land was beautiful and smelled fresh and green. But then everything changed. Suddenly, after turning down what looked to be a small country road, I was greeted by the site of an enormous power plant whose facilities run almost to the edge of the road. Piping stretched as far as I could see, and the grounds were filled with towering piles of coal. It was at this point that I got a bit nervous. what kind of historic village exists in the middle of a power plant? And should I really be driving this close to all that scariness? I have a vivid imagination, and all I could think about was blowing up. After rounding one more curve I was back to the Richmond countryside and through the gates of the Henricus site. Given the amount of billboard advertising leading up to the site, I was surprised at the lack of immediate excitement. There were only three other cars in the parking lot when I arrived. For six dollars I got a pass to the site and was ready to go.

The Henricus site includes both an Indian village and the colonist's village. In the Indian village I met an Indian in full leather get-up complete with fringe. My Indian friend, who was in reality a middle-aged balding man with a serious southern accent, was planting tobacco with a small wooden tool. While he wasn't very good at role playing -- he talked to me about the celebrations that were taking place for the 400Th anniversary of Jamestown -- he knew quite a lot about tobacco and told me that at Henricus they plant a strain native to Virginia.

After visiting the Indian village, I walked through the colonist site. I was slightly underwhelmed with village given its lack of instruction, but the buildings were really neat. The entire settlement's buildings are made of some kind of dried mud and stone patted into wood frames. The roof of every building is made from dried circular reeds piled almost a foot high and bound together. Looking at the settlers gardens I found myself looking at the tiny amount of tobacco that was grown. Henricus was the first place where tobacco crops were grown and cultivated for sale in Europe. While I'm sure there was more tobacco then than now, I still can't even fathom how little tobacco it took to become an international enterprise, compared to today.

After visiting the historic site I walked out along the bluff, where the view of the river was quite beautiful. On the bluff was the remains of a light house - just foundations at this point - and two statues. One, an obelisk, was dedicated by the Colonial Dames because Henricus was supposed to be the location of the first American university.