Editing James City County, Virginia (section)

== Military sites, bases ==

=== 17th century ===
A fort was underway at Jamestown very shortly after the colonists began establishing themselves there in May 1607. [[Archaeological]] work has been extensive, and is a major aspect of the current attractions there.

{{further|Jamestown Rediscovery}}

By 1634, the settlers of the [[Colony of Virginia]] had completed a [[palisade]] of approximately {{convert|6|mi|km}} length across the peninsula, anchored by College Creek (earlier known as Archer's Hope Creek) and Queen's Creek, which led to the James and York rivers respectively. The goal was to protect the lower peninsula to the east from attacks by the Native Americans, who were still a threat in the area until after 1644.

The exact location of this line of wooden defenses has been lost to time. A portion was found during archaeological research on the property occupied by the home of [[John Page (Middle Plantation)|Colonel John Page]], a person prominent in establishing Middle Plantation and what became [[Bruton Parish Church]] during the second half of the 17th century. That site is now part of the Bruton Heights School Educational Center, and within Williamsburg's city limits. Although all of the Page home site was originally in York County, the nearly {{convert|2500|ft|m}} section across the property gives insight into its likely location southerly into James City County. Archaeologists noted its extremely straight orientation, rather following topological features such as ridges or ravines, giving another clue.<ref>[http://research.history.org/Archaeological_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeVirginia/JohnPage.cfm John Page Site<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927220320/http://research.history.org/Archaeological_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeVirginia/JohnPage.cfm |date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref>

{{further|Middle Plantation (Virginia)}}

=== 19th century ===
During the [[American Civil War]], the 1862 [[Peninsula Campaign]] was a move up the Virginia Peninsula from [[Fort Monroe]] at the eastern tip by Union troops in an attempt to take the Confederate capital of [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]]. The Williamsburg Line, a third Confederate line of defense, extended across the Peninsula just east of town. Construction of the line, largely consisting of a series of 14 redoubts, was overseen by [[College of William and Mary]] President [[Benjamin S. Ewell]], who had joined in the defense of Williamsburg. At Redoubt # 6, near the center, [[Fort Magruder]], an earthen fortification, was located at a strategic point at the juncture of the roads from Lee's Mill and Yorktown to Williamsburg.

At Fort Magruder, a few earthworks and a small memorial remain along present-day Penniman Road in a residential area. In early 2006, [[Riverside Health System]] donated {{convert|22|acre|m2}} of the {{convert|350|acre|km2}} of land that it had bought from Colonial Williamsburg in 2004, to create a public park. The land, located about {{convert|1.5|mi|km}} south of Fort Magruder (towards the James River), includes two redoubts that were part of the line of defenses made up of 14 redoubts, of which Fort Magruder was the largest.

=== 20th century ===
The [[Grove, Virginia|Grove Community]] in the southeastern end of the county was populated with many [[African-American]] families displaced during [[World War I]] and [[World War II]] as the military reservations for the [[Naval Weapons Station Yorktown]] and [[Camp Peary]] respectively were created on the sites of the [[Former counties, cities, and towns of Virginia|lost towns]] of [[Lackey, Virginia|Lackey]] and [[Magruder, Virginia|Magruder]].

At the southwestern edge of Grove, the U.S. Army's [[Camp Wallace]] operated from 1918 to 1971. It was a satellite facility of [[Fort Eustis]], which was established as Camp Abraham Eustis in neighboring Warwick County in 1918. In this hilly terrain, the base had its Upper Artillery Range. Some years after World War II, Camp Wallace became was the site of the Army's first installation of its [[aerial tramway]]. The Camp Wallace property became part of the Anheuser Busch developments beginning in the 1970s.

=== 21st century ===
No military installations are currently headquartered in the county. Small portions of Camp Peary and the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station are located in James City County, although most portions of each of these large installation are located in neighboring York County. Also, a very small portion of Fort Eustis property adjacent to Skiffe's Creek Reservoir and the southeastern tip of the Greenmount Industrial Park is also located in the county, although almost all of Fort Eustis is now located in the independent city of [[Newport News, Virginia|Newport News]] (which consolidated with the former Warwick County in 1958 to form the present large city).