The James River’s rocky rapids at Pony Pasture marked a cultural and physical boundary between the Algonquian-speaking Powhatans and the Siouan-speaking Monacan in the early 1600s. In 1608, Capt. Christopher Newport and a band of colonists may have passed by here on foot as they traveled farther up the river in search of gold and visited a Monacan town near modern Richmond. According to William Strachey, who arrived at Jamestown in 1610, the English had already proclaimed the king’s authority one day’s journey into Monacan country at Mohominge, a neighboring village, where they set up a cross bearing His Majesty’s name. The English also recognized this stretch of river as suitable for water-powered mills because of its sharp descent into the low country. Over the seven-mile stretch from Bosher’s Dam to the Mayo Bridge, the James River drops 105 feet in elevation, a fall that today supports renowned urban whitewater paddling. John Smith knew the James by its Algonquian name, Powhatan, and traveled it many times between 1607 and 1609, trading with Virginia Indians to help sustain Jamestown; his experience of Virginia’s woodlands and waters helped inspire his exploration of the Chesapeake Bay. The Powhatan paramount chief warned Smith against the Monacan and may have hoped to gain English weapons and trade goods against these long-standing rivals, whom Smith identified as powers at the head of the rivers beyond the mountains.
