Smith Island, Virginia

Coordinates: 37°8′38″N 75°52′28″W / 37.14389°N 75.87444°W / 37.14389; -75.87444 Smith Island is one of the Virginia Barrier Islands located adjacent to the southern end of the Eastern Shore of Virginia in Northampton County near Cape Charles.

The island has the name of John Smith, the explorer.[1] In 1614, Governor Thomas Dale sent 20 men, under Lieutenant William Craddock, to the area to establish a salt works and to catch fish for the colonists. They intended to make salt by boiling down the sea water. They settled along Old Plantation Creek at Dale's Gift on the mainland, but established the salt works on Smith Island.

The island was later held by the Custis family of Virginia. Martha Custis Washington owned the island, as did her great-granddaughter, whose husband Robert E. Lee gave an account of the island after inspecting it in 1832.[2]

Cape Charles Lighthouse is located on Smith Island.

References

  1. ↑ Federal Writers' Project (1938). The Ocean Highway: New Brunswick, New Jersey to Jacksonville, Florida. Works Progress Administration. p. 83.
  2. ↑ Barry Truitt, "Robert E. Lee: An Account of His Visit to Smith Island" in Brooks M. Barnes, Barry R. Truitt, and William W. Warner, eds., Seashore Chronicles: Three Centuries of the Virginia Barrier Islands, University Press of Virginia,1997.


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