York County Historical Museum

05/24/2026

At 3pm, Monday May 25th, please join Taps Across America and pause a moment to remember the memories of our service members who have passed, and all the sacrifices they have given over the years.



Jerry Karwac, Jr. playing Taps at Grafton Christian Church last Veterans Day. His father, who served during the Korean war and his uncle-in-law who served in World War II, are both buried there. 

05/24/2026

Monday, May 25, 2026, is when we commemorate Memorial Day this year. This is the day we remember all our military servicemen and women who have passed, especially the ones who gave their lives for our Country.

At noon on Monday, the York County Historical Committee will hold its annual program at York Hall, 301 Main Street in Yorktown. All are welcome to attend.

At 3pm, Taps Across America encourages everyone to pause and play Taps if you can (even just hum it) or at least take a moment to remember all of those who have gone before us.

05/10/2026

The building is owned by the local Comte de Grasse Chapter of the NSDAR. They open it for special events, Sundays from sometime in May until close to Oct 19th, when they have volunteers available.

04/16/2026

If you know me, you know I’m a fan of TOS Star Trek and posts from William Shatner do pop up on my feed at times. This is apparently his reaction about rumors of his health, but it is good advice for everything online. Historians were known for researching “primary resources” for the basis of anything they wrote. Facts from the original information. Today people aren’t doing real research for historical facts. Yes, I’ve traveled that rabbit hole myself, and apologize if I’ve shared such. And often points of “local lore” or even family histories may contain true stories that we still share, even if no primary resources are found to back it up. AI will use everything ever posted as fact and compile it for what it produces. While it can be a good tool, it can also be wrong. And know that some historical facts are hard facts, but some may have been based on one side of a story and as more research is done, could give a better picture of the full story. Wasn’t it Paul Harvey who ended his segments with “and now you know the rest of the story”.

Thank you to all the true historians out there who search for the rest of the story. And confirm it’s the real story.

To put a stop to this ridiculous rumor once and for all.
READ 👇🏻

04/12/2026

Unfortunately this will happen April 25th & 26th, during the History Fair weekend, I can’t attend. But since both events are both Saturday and Sunday, hopefully everyone else can attend both!

It's almost here! 🎉

Join us April 25-26 for the grand opening of the Campbell Archaeology Center! From hands-on activities to behind-the-scenes tours and live discussions, it’s a full weekend of archaeology in action!

Check out the flyer below and come celebrate with us!

04/08/2026

We are still cataloging items from a dig of an area between Ballard and Buckner Streets. Some things are from a star fort possibly built by Martiau himself. We would love to host a lecture about the site if there is interest.

✏️ "Raise the drawbridge!" 🏰 Did you know that Yorktown originally began as a fort? Although York Fort probably didn't have a drawbridge, it did play an important role in the area's history. Let's take a closer look in today's Yorktown history lesson! ✏️

🏰 In 1620, King James I sent Captain Nicholas Martiau to build forts in Virginia, specifically at York, and to complete the great log palisade between College and Queen Creeks. (𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑢𝑛 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒: 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑑 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡-𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑓𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐺𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛! 🤩)

🏰 York's fort was initially built just a short distance down river from present-day Yorktown, and a small settlement developed there thanks to the guarantee of safety. This village also became a receiving port and mercantile center for the growing population. The site is now part of the United States Coast Guard Training Center. ⚓

01/11/2026

Thank you to our volunteers for showing Aileen all around the museum and storage units today. Looks like we have found someone interested in working with us as our new Collections Manager. We will miss Emily, but wish her all the best in her new position.

Welcome Aileen!

Pictured are (l-r) Jerry, Aileen, Dora and Paul.

01/03/2026

During WWI we had a cold snap so bad some local Rivers froze. Wrap up and stay warm!

York County Historical Museum will now be on very limited hours. We open when Sharon is able to open the Gallery at York Hall, usually a short time in the morning on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, if the weather is good. We will return to regular hours in April. Please consider talking to Maria if you are will to greet guests to the Museum. Even just a day a month would would help!

Today in Hampton History
1918 - Citizens of Hampton and Newport News raid coal piers in Newport News, carrying off two carloads of coal before being stopped by military police. Coal stores had been limited since the previous summer, with officials at the Chesapeake & Ohio coal piers rationing distribution when it received new shipments.

A cold snap combined with wartime shortages led to increasing desperation among citizens nationwide who used coal to heat homes and fuel cooking stoves. Extreme cold also froze the James River for several weeks and hampered rail transport, further straining already low supplies.

Through the winter of 1917-1918, coal shortages led to rolling closures of schools, libraries, and other facilities deemed non-essential to the nation’s war effort. The United States’ supply of coal was one of the most significant contributions the nation made in turning the tide of World War I.

Image: Citizens raiding coal cars on a Chesapeake & Ohio train near Cincinnati, Ohio, 1918. National Archives.

Explore more:
https://umma.umich.edu/exhibitions/mine-more-coal-war-effort-and-americanism-in-world-war-i-posters/

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/raw-materials/

https://archive.wvculture.org/history/exhibitsonline/worldwar1/wwone4.html

01/01/2026

Happy New Year! 🎉🎊

If you’ve ever researched colonial history, you may have seen 1606/7 used. Ed Ayres taught me this fact years ago but still surprises people the first time they see it.

We may be getting ready to ring in the new year, but those living at Jamestown 400 years ago would think we were about 3 months too early! In the 17th century, England and her colonies still used the Julian calendar, which marked the beginning of the new year on March 25. This persisted into the 18th century.

Today, historians sometimes write dates like “1606/7” if they refer to events that happened from January 1 to March 24 in the years prior to the change.

📸 Sunset at Jamestown

12/03/2025

This is shared from the Hampton History Museum but York County has also been a part of the Virginia Indian story. Studies at Naval Weapons Station by W&M found indications of a Village there during the time of the Spanish Missionary attempts prior to our Jamestown settlement. They were still there during the first part of the English moving in to the area.

A Special Look at the Kikotan Tribe, in honor of Native American Heritage Month
Part 5 of 5: The Kikotan After 1610

The Kikotan tribe, in what is now Hampton, once numbered around 1,000 and were led by a powerful werowance (chief). They were replaced by Powhatan in the 1590s, then attacked and removed by the English on July 9, 1610 during the First Anglo-Powhatan War (the first removal of Native people by English Americans).

The surviving Kikotan probably merged with other Algonkian-speaking chiefdoms, including the Pamunkey, Mattaponi, and Chickahominy. The tribes of Tsenacomoco, Powhatan’s former chiefdom, fought two more wars with the English before a 1646 peace treaty outlined land reservations for Native peoples in coastal Virginia. In 1677, the Treaty of Middle Plantation recognized tribal nations’ independence and remaining land in exchange for their loyalty to the English government in Virginia.

These treaties were made with the English (later British) government, which maintained recognition of Virginia’s Native American tribes until the American Revolution and beyond. In 1983, the Commonwealth of Virginia formally confirmed its recognition of the Pamunkey, Mattaponi, and four other tribes, and the Pamunkey were the first to be federally recognized in 2015. There are now 11 state-recognized tribes in Virginia, and 7 are federally recognized. Descendants of the Kikotan probably live among them today.

If you missed any installments in this series, be sure to visit our main feed:
Part 1: First People
Part 2: The Kikotan Tribe
Part 3: Kikotan and Powhatan Diplomacy
Part 4: The First Anglo-Powhatan War

We’ve only scratched the surface. For more on Virginia’s Indigenous history and heritage, visit:
http://www.pamunkey.org/
https://www.mattaponination.com/
http://www.chickahominytribe.org/
http://www.virginiaindianarchive.org/
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Pamunkey_Tribe
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Mattaponi_Tribe
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Chickahominy_Tribe
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/category/indians/

Image: Members of the Chickahominy, Pamunkey, and Mattaponi tribes at an intertribal powwow, late 1920s. Courtesy of the Virginia Indian Archive.