Colonial National Historical Park

It began on the swampy marshes of Jamestown in 1607. It ended on the battle scarred landscape of Yorktown in 1781. It was one hundred and seventy-four years of hope, frustration, adventure, discovery, growth, and development that saw a lonely settlement of 104 men and boys grow into a nation of 13 colonies of 3 million people, of many races and many beliefs. Jamestown and Yorktown mark the beginning and end of English Colonial America. The Cape Henry Memorial commemorates the site where a wooden cross was erected by the early English settlers upon their safe arrival to Virginia in April of 1607. According to George Percy, one of the early settlers, "The nine and twentieth day we set up a cross at Chesupioc Bay, and named the place Cape Henry."