Diascund Creek is the major tributary of the

Chickahominy River The Chickahominy is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Virginia. The river, which serves as the eastern bo ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, part of the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

watershed. The creek flows south and forms the border between New Kent County on the west and

James City County James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,254. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg. Located ...

on the east. In 1963, an earthen dam was constructed across the creek above Lanexa to create a 1,100 acre reservoir for

Newport News Waterworks Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

. The only public access directly to the creek is from Diascund Reservoir Park part of James City County’s park system. There are also access points for members of local civic associations on both sides of the tidal creek. Since at least colonial times, the creek has been bridged at Lanexa where U.S. Route 60 crosses it. During the Revolutionary War British troops destroyed American naval supplies which were stored there on the night of April 22, 1781. In 1881, the

Chesapeake and Ohio railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

bridged the creek further downstream as part of its

Peninsula Extension The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County. Its principal purpose was to provide an ...

. A bridge crossed the major channel to Hicks Island and a causeway connected the island to the eastern bank. The Diascund station was built just to the east. The Lanexa station was to the west. In the 1960s and 1970s, the subdivisions of The Colonies and Cypress Point were developed on the lower, tidal, section of the creek adjoining the Chickahominy River. Motor boating and waterskiing are popular on this section of the creek. Waterfront homes and erosion caused by the wake of the motor boats have altered the creek’s shoreline and adjoining marsh lands. This effect was aggravated by the growth of

hydrilla ''Hydrilla'' (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from ...

and other invasive submerged aquatic vegetation. Carp were introduced into the reservoir in 2013 to combat the invasive weed. This has led to a dramatic decline in the hydrilla, both in the reservoir and in the tidal creek, but native marsh plants have not taken its place.

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Virginia Rivers of New Kent County, Virginia Rivers of James City County, Virginia

See also

References