If you walk a block behind our shop at Shore Drive Shell, you’re on the beach. Walk a mile to the east from there and you’ll be very close to the spot where John Smith and his followers first set foot on dry land after what must have been a harrowing trip across the Atlantic. No matter how long you had been at sea, it must have been scary to face a land composed of sand dunes, beach grass and wind-bent trees. Maps that were produced later refer to this area as “the desert.” So, like the nearby state park, we adopted the name First Landing to honor the courage of those first settlers.
Today, the desert has, of course, been tamed. A walk through the state park will give you an inkling of the daunting real estate that Smith and his team faced, but something is missing – sand. Lots and lots of sand. Cape Henry used to be home to huge dunes that I’m told rivaled Kitty Hawk and that sand was viewed as a resource to be exploited, so a train track was built on what is now the bike path and the sand was carted away. When the sand was depleted in one spot, bulldozers would push the track to the next spot and load more sand. A gentleman who worked the project in his youth quipped that the sand was” spread between here and Ohio a quarter of an inch thick.”
Life was tough for those “first landers,” but they persisted and settled Virginia. We are proud to commemorate their struggle and their courage.
