Werowocomoco
Courtesy of the National Park Service
Located along the York River’s Purtan Bay in Gloucester County, Virginia, Werowocomoco [wayr-uh-wah-koh-muh-koh] was an important Powhatan Indian town for hundreds of years before English settlers established Jamestown. Werowocomoco, translated from the Virginian Algonquian language, means “place of leadership.”
Werowocomoco was confirmed as an archaeological site in 2002, nearly 400 years after the land served as the principal residence and the headquarters of Powhatan, the Paramount Chief who united many of the Chesapeake’s tribes in a confederacy that controlled much of the region and was the dominant political force when English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607.
In 2016, Werowocomoco was permanently protected by the National Park Service (NPS) as part of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail (Chesapeake Trail).
Chesapeake Conservancy is proud to have played a role in this conservation success as one of the partners that helped secure funding through the Rivers of the Chesapeake, a collaborative landscape initiative funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
The site is not open to the public as the National Park Service collaborates on a planning process with American Indian tribes in Virginia. To learn more about Werowocomoco and American Indians in the Chesapeake, visit nps.gov/cajo and watch the videos below.
Feature Photo by National Park Service
