Lake Matoaka

Lake Matoaka in 1926

Note mill on far right and Jamestown Road, view is looking north

Prior to acquisition of the original charter for the College of William and Mary in 1693, Lake Matoaka was an open watercourse of streams and wetlands known as Archer's Hope Swamp. Some time between 1700 and 1750 this original section of college property was sold to a private landowner who soon dammed the main creek (now known as College Creek) to create a mill pond making Lake Matoaka the oldest man-made lake in Virginia and one of the oldest in the New World.

The mill was located just south of the current dam on Jamestown Road. Known as Ludwell's Mill, presumably, grain shipped to College Landing could be transported upstream to the mill, with milled flour transported downstream.

Over the next two centuries, the mill went through multiple private ownership before being destroyed. It wasn't until the 1920s that the College re-acquired the mill pond and surrounding College Woods. At that time, the pond was re-named Matoaka--after Chief Powhatan's daughter who many know as Pocahontas.

References

• SCRC File.
• Keck Lab

External Links

• Littletown Historic Marker

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The information available in this wiki is the best available from known documents and sources at the time it was written. Unfortunately, many of the early original records of William & Mary were destroyed by fires, military occupation, and the normal effects of time. Information in this wiki is not complete as new information continues to be uncovered in Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center and elsewhere. Researchers are strongly encouraged to use the Special Collections search tools for their research as the information contained in this wiki is by no means comprehensive.