Machicomoco State Park
Virginia State Park, Opened 2021; The First Created Specifically To Interpret The Virginia Indian Experience, Developed With The Seven State Recognised Tribes · Gloucester, Virginia
The newest park in the Virginia system, opened in 2021 on six hundred and forty-five acres above the York River in Gloucester County, and the first ever created specifically to interpret the Virginia Indian experience rather than to provide recreation. The name is an Algonquian word meaning a special meeting place, and the park sits a short distance from Werowocomoco - the principal town of Powhatan, the paramount chief whose territory the Jamestown colonists arrived in, and the place where whatever actually happened between John Smith and Pocahontas took place. The centrepiece is not a building but an open-air installation on a rise above the marsh: a circular arrangement of structures and panels developed with the seven state-recognised tribes, looking out over the water the towns were built around. The rest is deliberately low-key - a few miles of trail through field and woodland to the river, a small campground, camping cabins, a canoe launch and a great deal of marsh, because the point here is the interpretation rather than the facilities.
3601 Timberneck Farm Road, Gloucester, Virginia, 23061, United States
Park open daily, generally 8 AM to dusk with seasonal variation. Visitor facilities keep shorter hours and are reduced in winter. Camping and camping cabins are by reservation - note that the cabins are simple shelters rather than full cabins. Parking fee applies per vehicle. Interpretive programmes are SCHEDULED rather than continuous, so check the calendar. OPENED 2021 and still being built out; facilities may differ from any published list.
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