First surveyed in 1849 and laid out by Franklin Knox, Powhatan Point stands at the confluence of Captina Creek and the Ohio River. For its first 75 years, the small but thriving river and farming community served York Township and the rich Captina Valley as a shipping center. Spurred by the construction of the Powhatan Enterprise Flouring Mill and Woolen Factory in 1850, local businesses shipped grain, fruit, lumber, cheese, whiskey, livestock, wool, and tobacco to northern and southern ports. Three boat landings—Boger's, Hornbrook's, and Dorsey's—were each equipped with an incline car track from the warehouses to the river's edge. With the opening of North American Coal Corporation's Powhatan No. 1 Mine in 1922, the village became a mining community that continued to rely on the river. A disastrous mine fire took the lives of 66 men on July 5, 1944.