Fort Mattapony

Fort Mattapony, near Walkerton on a hill above the Mattaponi River, preserves archaeological remains of a late-17th-century frontier outpost and the nearby Ryefield dwelling. The tract was first patented in 1653 and was long known as the “Mattapony Fort tract,” hinting at an earlier defensive site before the recorded fort was created under a 1679 Grand Assembly act ordering forts on Virginia’s major rivers. Organized by Captain Richard Johnson, it briefly housed a garrison before reductions in 1680 and decommissioning in 1682. The site later became part of the Locust Grove plantation and is important for tracing colonial defense, frontier settlement, and the shift from fort to plantation landscape.

Virginia · United States