Falling Creek Ironworks

The proprietary Virginia Company of London established the first permanent English settlement in the Virginia Colony at Jamestown on May 14, 1607. The young colony struggled for years to develop self-sufficiency and successful exports. During the first five years, most of the colonists died from disease, starvation, and attacks by the Native Americans.

After 1612, non-native strains of tobacco were used as a cash crop, and plantations and other outposts from Jamestown spread downstream and up the James River toward the head of navigation (fall line) at present-day Richmond.

Near the confluence of Falling Creek with the James River, the colonists identified the site with the combination of ore deposits, water power, and access to navigable waters for shipping which were needed for their desired iron production facility. Although the outpost was one of the most remote from Jamestown, beginning in 1619, the Falling Creek Ironworks was established there. It was the first iron production facility in North America.[3]

Records which have survived indicate that the ironworks was able to produce some quantity of iron. However, from the extant records, it cannot be determined whether the ironworks had begun full production before operations were interrupted by the Indian Massacre of 1622.

On March 22, 1622, the Powhatan Confederacy of Native Americans tribes under the leadership of Chief Opechancanough conducted a series of coordinated surprise attacks on almost all the English settlements along the James River. Jamestown was spared only due to a timely warning. The massacre resulted in the death of about a third of the colonists. Two women and three children were among the 27 killed at Falling Creek Ironworks, leaving only two colonists alive, and the facilities were destroyed. Sir Thomas Dale's progressive development a few miles downstream at Henricus was evacuated as a result.

On July 21, 1646 George Ludlowe Esqr received 1,452 acres (5.88 km²) in York Co, that was adjacent to the Falling Creek Mill lands which was in part granted to Martin Baker (Martin Fouquet) as Yorke Plantation by purchase from George Mosso, esquire (esquiem). And which was mortgaged together with an additional 102 acres (0.41 km²) by Sir John Harve (John Harvey (Virginia governor)) as well as to pay transportation costs for 2 persons (Jean du Fer and his brother Francois, two surviving children of the 1622 massacre) as well as 750 acres (3.0 km²) to pay for transportation for 15 persons (mill workers): Philip Bowden (Philip Bourdain), John Nerve (Jean Nervais), Henry Davis, John Bernberry (Jean Banbury/VanBerry), Nicholos Iego (Nicholas Legos), Bassett Sax (Basset d'Sais), Richard Oxon (Richard d'Hausson/Dawson), Thomas Bacock (Thomas Picot), Mary Fitch, John Fleet (Jean van Fleet), and John Mission (Jean Monceaux/Muscheon), Sara Spittlewood, Richard Colins, Thomas Lewis, John Gerford (Gifford) and William Benton, Robert Caldwell.

From 1750 until 1781, Archibald Cary operated a forge there, until it was destroyed, by Benedict Arnold, during the American Revolutionary War. Later attempts to restore the ironworks were unsuccessful, and the exact site itself eventually became lost.