Existing comment:
Prehistory to Colonial Settlement
Jones Point was once a wooded wilderness, ringed by marshes and periodically cut off from the mainland during high tide. American Indians made use of both woodland and wetland for food, tools and supplies. By the 17th century, Europeans had displaced the native peoples, felled the trees and planted row upon row of tobacco.
Attracted to the seasonal resources of the river, woods and marsh made available by the warming climates that followed the last Ice Age, a small group of native peoples left their inland villages in the spring to establish hunting and fishing camps on Jones Point.
European colonists were required to "seat" their land patents by planting tobacco. Stafford County planter John Alexander -- an early owner of Jones Point -- arranged for tenant farmers (including Charles Jones, for whom Jones Point was named) and crews of enslaved African Americans to work the remote farm.
A Tobacco inspection station established near the foot of what is now Oronoco Street became the genesis of the active town of Alexandria in 1749.
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Ice Age
During the last Ice Age, glaciers locked away massive amounts of seawater in ice. Low sea levels exposed more land and enlarged the footprint of Jones Point.
Post Ice Age
Warming climates melted the glaciers after the last Ice Age. Rising sea levels created a tidally-flooded marsh (pocosin) that separated Jones Point from the mainland.
Historic Period
Sea levels continued to rise, but sedimentation gradually added land to Jones Point. In 1794, Alexandrians reinforced what may have been a slender, natural causeway permanently reconnecting Jones Point to the mainland. |