Kiptopeke State Park
Kiptopeke State Park is a state park located in the southern end of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the Delmarva Peninsula in Northampton County, near Cape Charles. The park offers recreational access to the brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay with its shoreline, beach, boat ramps and piers, as well as unique migratory bird habitat along the East Coast flyway. It is also known for the concrete ships sunk to protect the former ferry port from erosion during severe storms.
History
Native Americans lived on the Eastern Shore before English colonists arrived in the 17th century. Captain John Smith, who made several historic voyages around Chesapeake Bay, visited this area in 1608 and in 1612 published a book in which he mentioned two major indigenous villages on what became known as Virginia's Eastern Shore. One was ruled by Kiptopeke, and the other by his younger brother, Esmy Shichans, sometimes known as the "Laughing King", who lived somewhat to the north at Occohannock. The Virginia Company's secretary, John Pory wrote that Kiptopeke preferred to serve as his younger brother's lieutenant, as well as on the tribal council.Ferries to the Hampton Roads area traveled from Cape Charles since the colonial era.
By 1949, the Virginia Ferry Corporation owned the property, which it continued to use through 1964 as the northern terminus for the Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry service which crossed the lower Chesapeake Bay from the Eastern Shore / Delmarva to Norfolk and Hampton Roads harbor on the Western Shore. In 1964, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel replaced the ferry, as a more convenient method for automobile traffic between the Eastern Shore and urban centers, including the Hampton Roads region in Virginia, as well as North Carolina.