Founded in 1976 in Smithfield, Virginia, the Isle of Wight County Museum preserves the history of Isle of Wight County and nearby communities through exhibits on pre-colonial and colonial life, the Blackwater River, the Civil War, the Cold War, and Smithfield’s ham industry. It opened in the eighteenth-century Gaming House before moving in 1979 to the former Bank of Smithfield and expanding in 1990 into the adjacent Folk Building. Among its most memorable features are a recreated country store and the famed cured ham linked to P. D. Gwaltney Jr., displayed as evidence of his smoking method. After severe flood damage in 2006, a broad recovery effort helped the museum reopen in 2008.