Qualla: York County, Virginia

York County, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Wiseman, CC BY 3.0. On October 19, 1781, Lord Cornwallis sent General Charles O'Hara out of Yorktown with his sword and a story about being too sick to attend the surrender himself. American and French forces accepted it on a field that is now part of York County, Virginia, and the British Empire effectively conceded the war. That ground is still here - kept by the National Park Service inside Colonial National Historical Park, fifteen minutes' drive from a Water Country USA water park, twenty from Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and bordered by the largest concentration of U.S. military installations on the Virginia Peninsula. York County, formerly Charles River Shire, was created in 1634 as one of the eight original shires of the Virginia Colony. It is one of the oldest counties in the United States. The 2020 census counted 70,045 people in a place built on layers of history that contradict each other politely.

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Image: Andrew Wiseman | CC BY 3.0

York County, Virginia: Tenakomakah, 'Densely Inhabited Land'

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matthew W. King, CC BY-SA 4.0. Before the English arrived, much of the coastal plain draining to the Chesapeake Bay was called Tenakomakah in Algonquian - 'densely inhabited land.' The Powhatan Confederacy, built by a paramount chief named Wahunsunacock (1547-1618) and known to history as Powhatan, brought rou...

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Image: Matthew W. King | CC BY-SA 4.0

York County, Virginia: Charles River Shire to Yorktown

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humberto Moreno, CC BY 2.0. English colonists arrived at Jamestown in 1607. In 1619 the Virginia Company of London organized the area into 'citties': what is now York County fell across Elizabeth Cittie and James Cittie. The eight original shires followed in 1634 - Charles River Shire one of them - and the ...

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Image: Humberto Moreno | CC BY 2.0

York County, Virginia: Military Bases as Geography

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Look at York County from the air and the U.S. military's footprint reads as physical geography. The Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown sits on the York River. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, established by order of President Woodrow Wilson in 1918 to support World War I mine-la...

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Image: Nyttend | Public domain

York County, Virginia: Coasters, Coal, and a Political Shift

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PghPhxNfk, CC BY-SA 3.0. York County also wraps around the affiliated theme parks: Busch Gardens Williamsburg sits at the western edge, with the Water Country USA water park inside the county. A small industrial corridor on the York River east of Yorktown holds a Dominion Virginia Power plant and a petro...

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Image: PghPhxNfk | CC BY-SA 3.0