Pagan River and wetlands view back of Wentworth-Grinnan House

The Pagan River (Warraskoyak) is a tributary of the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

located in

Isle of Wight County, Virginia Isle of Wight County is a county located in the Hampton Roads region of the U.S. state of Virginia. It was named after the Isle of Wight, England, south of the Solent, from where many of its early colonists had come. As of the 2020 census, th ...

. The colonial seaport town of Smithfield (and its National Register-listed Smithfield Historic District) sits on the banks of this river. Formed about three miles north of Smithfield, the river runs narrow until it is joined by Cypress Creek. The Pagan then opens to a large expanse of wetlands and marsh before bottle-necking into the James River. Unlike many of the tributaries along the James, it is largely untouched by development — 88 percent of its watershed is a mix of forest, pasture, grasslands and wetlands, according to a 2001 report by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Pagan, however, played an integral role in the growth of Smithfield, a town of approximately 8,000 people best known for producing

Virginia ham Country ham is a variety of heavily salted ham preserved by curing and smoking, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States. Production Country hams are salt-cured (with or without nitrites) for one to three months. They are usua ...

s. First settled in 1634, Smithfield became an important Hampton Roads trading port. Peanut warehouses lined the river banks until a 1921 fire prompted the industry to shift to Suffolk. Founded 15 years later,

Smithfield Foods Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia, in the United States, and an independent subsidiary of WH Group. Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company by Joseph W. Luter ...

soon took its place as the town's economic engine. Following years of expansion, it is now the world's largest pork producer and processor. Its headquarters occupy a sizable portion of the town's waterfront. Yet unlike other inland waterways, such as the

Hampton River The Hampton River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tidal estuary which empties into Hampton Roads near its mouth. Hampton Roads in turn empties into th ...

, the Pagan remains largely pastoral. In 2000 about 18,000 people lived in its watershed, according to the USGS. The Hampton River, less than half the Pagan's length, had a population of nearly 75,000 at the same time. The name of the river may come from the

Algonquin language Algonquin (also spelled Algonkin; in Algonquin: or ) is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by th ...

word for

pecan The pecan (''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia, ...

(Cree pakan, Ojibway pagan, Abenaki pagann) "that which is cracked with a tool" referring to the nut. When the area was explored in the early 17th century there were many pecan trees along the banks.

References

Rivers of Virginia Tributaries of the James River Rivers of Isle of Wight County, Virginia {{Virginia-river-stub

See also

References