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Smith Island is one of the Virginia Barrier Islands located adjacent to the southern end of the Eastern Shore of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
in Northampton County near Cape Charles. The island bears the name of Captain John Smith the explorer who visited it in 1608. In 1614, Governor
Thomas Dale Sir Thomas Dale ( 157019 August 1619) was an English soldier and colonial administrator who served as deputy-governor of the Colony of Virginia in 1611 and again from 1614 to 1616. Dale is best remembered for the energy and the extreme rigour ...
sent 20 men, under Lieutenant William Craddock, to the area to establish a salt works and to catch fish for the colonists. They intended to make salt by boiling down the sea water. They settled along Old Plantation Creek at Dale's Gift on the mainland, but established the salt works on Smith Island.


History

Legendary pirate Edward Teach, known as
Blackbeard Edward Teach (or Thatch; – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he ma ...
, sometimes used Smith Island as a stopover to
careen Careening (also known as "heaving down") is a method of gaining access to the hull of a sailing vessel without the use of a dry dock. It is used for cleaning or repairing the hull. Before ship's hulls were protected from marine growth by fastening ...
his ships. Three centuries later a creek and cove on the island still bear his name. Though he traveled far and wide Blackbeard found fertile pirating grounds in the area off the Virginia Capes. On Sept. 29, 1717 he and Captain
Benjamin Hornigold Benjamin Hornigold (c. 1680–1719) was an English pirate towards the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bahamas. He helped to e ...
captured the sloop ''Betty'' off Cape Charles and plundered her cargo of Madeira wine and other valuables and scuttled the ship. For over two centuries Smith Island was held by the Custis family of Virginia having been granted to
John Custis Colonel John Custis IV (August 1678 – November 22, 1749) was an American planter, politician, government official and military officer who sat in the House of Burgesses from 1705 to 1706 and 1718 to 1719, representing Northampton County, Virg ...
in 1691. The ancestral home of the Custis family, Arlington Plantation, was located nearby. Martha Custis Washington owned the barrier island, as did her great-granddaughter, Mary Custis whose husband
Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...
gave an account of the island after inspecting it in 1832 while stationed at nearby
Fort Monroe Fort Monroe is a former military installation in Hampton, Virginia, at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula, United States. It is currently managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth o ...
with the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
. Lee wrote that Smith Island was "nearer the level of the sea than I expected to find it". He described the surface of the island as being "composed of alternate ridges and glades running as near as I could judge from north to south and from one extremity to the other". He found "the soil of the glades is as rich as possible and covered with fine grass, that of the ridges contains a great deal of sand and is covered with pine". At the time of Lee's visit the island was occupied by four tenant farmers. Lee wrote that each tenant family had "30 to 40 head of cattle which they milk, take care of, and so forth, and as they rapidly increase will be at last valuable". He also estimated that there were an additional 150 head of wild cattle and 100 wild sheep roaming the island. Smith Island remained in the Custis-Lee family until 1911 and continued to be used for grazing cattle through the mid 1920s. In the mid 20th century the island was home to a waterfowl hunting club. The
Cape Charles Light Cape Charles Lighthouse is an octagonal cast iron skeleton tower lighthouse at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on Smith Island, Virginia, Smith Island which was officially removed from service in 2019. It is the tallest lighthouse in Virginia an ...
house is located on Smith Island. The current lighthouse, an octagonal steel skeleton tower, is the third lighthouse built on the island, the other two having been lost to shoreline erosion as the barrier island migrated westward. Smith island has been uninhabited since 1963 when the Cape Charles lighthouse was automated and the keepers left. The head lightkeeper's house built in 1895 stood on the island until July 13, 2000 when it was destroyed by a brush fire. Three steel skeleton watchtowers constructed near the lighthouse by the
US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
still stand on the island. Smith Island has been owned by
The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...
since 1995. The Cape Charles light was discontinued by the
US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, mi ...
in 2019, but the lighthouse, the second tallest in the United States, remains standing on the island.


See also

*
Smith Island, Maryland Smith Island is a collection of three distinct island communities – Tylerton, Rhodes Point, and Ewell, Maryland – on the Chesapeake Bay, on the border of Maryland and Virginia territorial waters in the United States. The island is the last ...
is a different island located in the Chesapeake Bay which is split between Maryland and Virginia; only the Maryland portion is inhabited.


References

{{authority control Smith Island English-American culture in Virginia Fishing communities in the United States Barrier islands of Virginia