First Landing State Park

First Landing State Park is a 2,888-acre state park situated on Cape Henry in the northern section of Virginia Beach, Virginia. As Virginia's most-visited state park, it serves as an oasis within urban Virginia Beach. The park is near the site of the first landing on April 26, 1607, of Captain Christopher Newport and the Virginia Company colonists before they established themselves at Jamestown. Built in part by an all African-American Civilian Conservation Corps between 1933 and 1940, the park is a National Natural Landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Today the park draws visitors year-round for its rare ecological diversity, extensive trail network, Chesapeake Bay beachfront, and deep ties to American colonial history.

History

The 1607 Landing

On the early morning of Sunday, April 26, 1607, three small ships carrying the first permanent settlers of Virginia approached the shore near Cape Henry at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Those three ships — the Discovery, the Susan Constant, and the Godspeed — brought the first English settlers to America. The roughly 100 Englishmen and women aboard, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, went on to establish the first permanent English settlement in the New World at Jamestown after exploring what is now Virginia Beach for several days.

That evening the colonists opened the strong box and read the instructions contained in the first charter, and upon discovering that the members of the council were named but not its president, they held the first recorded free election under English common law. According to George Percy, younger son of the Duke of Northumberland, who was among the group, the colonists "set up a cross and called the place Cape Henry" — naming it for Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James I.

A cross was erected in the state park by the Daughters of the American Colonists on April 26, 1935, to mark the location of the first landing by English colonists, along with a placard at the base of the cross bearing the dates of the landing and the settlement at Jamestown.

Civilian Conservation Corps and Park Founding

Development of Seashore State Park — as it was then known — began in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps on 1,060 acres of donated land. Most of the workers were Black American men, and the new park opened on June 15, 1936. The park was the first planned state park of the Virginia State Park system. Its plan was designed and developed with extensive consultation of the National Park Service, which provided architectural drawings and plans.

The Seashore State Park Historic District, comprising the entire 2,889-acre park, is a historic district with significance dating to 1933 for its architecture and engineering, and includes eight contributing buildings, six contributing sites, and ten contributing structures.

Segregation and Civil Rights

Like all Virginia State Parks following Reconstruction and through the first half of the 1900s, First Landing State Park implemented Jim Crow laws with segregated and unequal facilities for white and Black visitors. In 1955, following the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, the governing authorities of First Landing State Park chose to close the park rather than integrate, reopening as an integrated park in 1965 following the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Renaming the Park

The geographic moniker of "Seashore" stuck when the park opened in 1936, and it became formally known as Seashore State Park. In 1997, during the early planning stages of the Virginia Company and Jamestown 400th commemorations, community groups rallied to change the name — and the park is now called First Landing State Park. Though its former name is still commonly used by Tidewater locals. In 2007, the park hosted a re-enactment of the first landing as part of the Jamestown 400th anniversary celebrations.

Native American Heritage

Virginia Indian tribes relied on the coastal area as a source of fresh food, setting up temporary hunting camps for the summer months. First Landing State Park houses the remains of 64 Virginia Indians in a ceremonial gravesite; the remains were repatriated to Virginia from the Smithsonian Institution in 1997.

Geography and Natural Features

First Landing State Park is located on Cape Henry in northern Virginia Beach. The park features beach, back dunes, upland forest, tidal marsh, and cypress swamp, and contains one of the most endangered habitat types in the world — the maritime forest community. The park is also the northernmost East Coast location where subtropical and temperate plants can be found growing together.

The site hosts the highest natural points in Southeast Virginia, with massive dunes that reach up to 75 feet in height. These ancient dunes, built up over thousands of years by wind and wave action along the Chesapeake Bay shoreline, have since been stabilized and draped in Spanish moss-laden maritime forest.

The 3,598-acre Seashore Natural Area, a portion of which is located within the park, was listed as a National Natural Landmark in 1965. The designation recognized the significance of the park's forested dunes and semitropical vegetation.

The park's waterways have served human activity for centuries. Native American canoes, Colonial settlers, 20th-century schooners, and modern cargo ships have navigated the park's waterways, and its cypress swamps were a source of fresh water for merchant mariners, pirates, and military ships. The swamps served mariners during the War of 1812, and legend holds that Blackbeard hid in the Narrows area of the park, while interior waterways were used by Union and Confederate patrols during the Civil War.

Trails and Recreation

The park features 1.5 miles of shoreline along the Chesapeake Bay and over 20 miles of trails throughout the park and its many habitats. With the exception of the Chesapeake Bay beach, the trail system traverses most of the habitats found in First Landing State Park — cypress swamp, salt marsh, maritime forest, freshwater wetlands, dunes, and bay shoreline.

Among the most popular individual trails are:

• Bald Cypress Trail — A shady 1.5-mile loop through the gnarly, knobby cypress swamps, with wooden boardwalks and observation platforms that offer a unique perspective on the ecosystem and its wildlife.

• Long Creek Trail — A five-mile trek through open salt marshland that traces the edge of the Chesapeake Bay, passing picturesque White Hill Lake and offering some of the finest birdwatching in the area.

• Cape Henry Trail — The only trail in the park that allows bicycles, running through the heart of the park for 5.9 miles.

The park in northern Virginia Beach offers boating, swimming, nature programs, hiking, biking, picnicking, a boat launch, camping, cabin rentals, and trails. A boat launch is located at the end of the 64th Street park road, which ends at the Narrows — a section of bay between Broad Bay and Linkhorn Bay. Fishing and crabbing are also popular activities throughout the park; a valid Virginia saltwater fishing license is required to fish at First Landing.

Overnight Accommodations

There are more than 200 campsites in First Landing State Park. The park offers cabins, yurts, water and electric hook-up campsites, tent campsites, a picnic area, boat ramps, and a camp store. Cabin options include six two-bedroom frame cabins and fourteen two-bedroom cinderblock cabins. The park also features recreational yurts — a modern adaptation of an ancient nomadic shelter that are functionally a cross between a tent and a cabin — located along the dunes near the Chesapeake Bay.

First Landing State Park is open every day from 7 a.m. to dusk, with overnight areas accessible 24 hours a day when open. A $7 per vehicle entrance fee applies most of the year, while visits during peak-season weekends and select holidays cost $10 per vehicle.

Education and Visitor Center

First Landing's visitor center has educational displays that focus on the first landing by English settlers in 1607. The Chesapeake Bay Center features aquariums and a wet lab operated by the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, educational displays, historic exhibits, a camp store, an amphitheater, and a Gateways Program regional welcome center.

The park offers various self-guided and guided programs covering crabbing, junior rangers, beach walks, nature hikes, and structured environmental education programs, with large clubs, school groups, and community organizations able to request specific historical, cultural, and environmental programming. The park participates in Virginia's State Parks: Your Backyard Classrooms, a 40-activity curriculum guide used by K–12 teachers and home-school coordinators.

The Friends of First Landing State Park is an organization that supports the park through fund-raising and volunteer efforts. Interpretive trails, an excellent visitor center, and excellent venues for photography make this a premier wildlife viewing destination.