THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020582
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
First Landing State Park?
If you think Seashore State Park's new moniker sounds more like the name of a history theme park than that of a Registered Natural Landmark, you aren't far wrong.
The name change was a decade-old desire of history-oriented folks in the Order of Cape Henry 1607. The order preserves the memory of the 1607 landing at Cape Henry of the first permanent English settlers in the New World. This spring, the group persuaded Virginia's Conservation and Recreation Board to change Seashore's name to reflect this historical significance.
Park manager Fred Hazelwood IV says the historical aspect of the new name may be an asset in disguise for those interested in preserving the park's natural resources.
``The fact that the park is a botanical wonderland with rare and endangered species kind of goes over the heads of most people,'' Hazelwood explained.
He said that if the park were interpreted from a historical perspective to connect this ``botanical wonderland'' with people's use of it through the years, the concept might not be so hard to understand. ``Natural resources are a critical component of our cultural resources,'' Hazelwood said.
First Landing/Seashore State Park is one of the few places left in Virginia Beach that is no different in many respects than it was when the first settlers came ashore.
Almost immediately, the Englishmen discovered what a land of plenty this was. Diarist George Percy described ``faire meadows and goodly tall trees, with such fresh waters running through the woods as I was almost ravashed at the first sight thereof.'' Those meadows were probably stretches of salt meadow hay, which can still be seen in the park today.
And those ``goodly tall trees'' and ``fresh waters'' were most probably the park's freshwater ponds with stately tall cypress that look much as they did in 1607.
``Here's how you can tie this into your life,'' Hazelwood likes to tell his visitors. ``You can walk on land the first settlers walked on.''
The park's land used to be a favorite fishing and hunting ground of colonists who settled this area after Jamestown was founded.
Residents of old Princess Anne County became alarmed in 1770 when they heard that a patent was being sought on the land around Cape Henry. Fifty-two of them successfully petitioned the Governor's Council in Williamsburg to preserve the area ``for the benefit of the Inhabitants of this Colony in General for carrying on a Fishery and for such other Publick Uses. . .''
The area, often referred to as ``the desert'' because of the huge secondary sand dunes that ring the eastern and northern sides, continued to be preserved for ``publick use'' for another 100 years.
Then the people lost out. To replenish state coffers after the Civil War, the General Assembly sold the land to Maryland developers in 1869.
The state was able to rectify its mistake in 1936. At the urging of the ``publick,'' it repurchased some of the land and created the park.
Although the First Landing Cross is located today in Fort Story and not in the park, Hazelwood is confident that the actual landing took place farther inland on what is now park land.
``This is the beginning of English history in America,'' Hazelwood said of First Landing/Seashore State Park. ``The idea will be this is where it began.''
KEYWORDS: SEASHORE STATE PARK by CNB