Qualla: Prince William County, Virginia

Prince William County, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. Prince William County is the only place in Virginia where you can stand on the ground where the United States Marine Corps tells its story in a building shaped like the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, then drive twenty minutes to ground where 5,000 American soldiers died in two days in 1862 fighting one another. It is also the second most populous county in Virginia and was the first to become majority-minority, with non-white residents - Hispanic, African American, and Asian - holding the majority since 2012. Disney once tried to build a theme park here; local preservationists, citing the Manassas battlefield, stopped them. The county is named for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland - the youngest son of King George II.

Image: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

Prince William County, Virginia: From Doeg Villages to Tobacco

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nova1 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The Algonquian-speaking Doeg people lived in villages along the Potomac before European disease and firearms drove them out by 1700. Prince William County was created in 1731 from the western half of Stafford County, an act of the Virginia General Assembly that initially covered ...

Image: Nova1 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Prince William County, Virginia: The Bull Run Battles

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Fleitz / Manassas National Battlefield Park, Public domain. Both Battles of Manassas were fought here - First Manassas on July 21, 1861, the first major land battle of the Civil War, and Second Manassas on August 28-30, 1862. Together they accounted for over 25,000 American casualties. Manassas National Battlefield Park now preserves the ...

Image: William Fleitz / Manassas National Battlefield Park | Public domain

Prince William County, Virginia: Disney and the Battlefield

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Shahid93 at en.wikipedia, Public domain. In November 1993 the Walt Disney Company announced plans for Disney's America, a $650 million theme park dedicated to American history, on a 3,000-acre site in the Haymarket area just west of Manassas. The project would have included a roller coaster simulating a Civil War battle...

Image: Shahid93 at en.wikipedia | Public domain

Prince William County, Virginia: The Marines and the Wild

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Shahid93, CC BY 3.0. The southern part of Prince William County belongs to the federal government. Marine Corps Base Quantico, where every Marine officer trains, occupies a huge slice of the county along the Potomac, and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle - free to the public - opene...

Image: Shahid93 | CC BY 3.0

Prince William County, Virginia: The Demographic Turn

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit IFCAR, Public domain. Prince William County grew faster than almost anywhere else in Virginia during the early 2000s - 43% between 2000 and 2010. By 2012 it was the first majority-minority county in the state. Hispanic residents now make up over 25% of the population; Black residents 20%; Asian reside...

Image: IFCAR | Public domain