Along the Chickahominy

Recently I enjoyed a brisk hike across the Chickahominy River,

thanks to a pedestrian pathway that traverses the Virginia Highway 5 bridge.

October days in Tidewater are especially beautiful,

and the view from the bridge reflected the slate-blue river and the blush of autumn color 

that stretched out for miles beneath a cloudless, sun-lit sky:

The Chickahominy River flows just northeast of the James River in Virginia.

It is named for the Chickahominy Indian tribe, 

an independent Algonquin tribe that was part of the Powhatan nation, 

whose member tribes resided in Virginia long before the Colonial era.

According to local history, in 1607, Captain John Smith

was denied assistance by all the Indian tribes he encountered upriver

until he reached the Chickahominy, who gave him bushels and bushels of corn.

Indeed, the Chickahominy tribe web site  http://www.chickahominytribe.org/

says the tribe's name means "people of the coarse pounded corn." 

So thanks to the Chickahominy's generosity, the Jamestown settlers

were able to survive and establish the Virginia Company.

I didn't see any corn fields along the paved hiking path, 

but I did see some interesting sights once I crossed the bridge into Charles City County.

Those I will show in tomorrow's post when I describe the rather quirky,

unexpected things I came upon after I crossed the bridge.

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