The Powhatan County Historic Garden, opened in 2006 to celebrate the nation's 400th anniversary from the founding of the first New World colony at Jamestown Settlement in 1607, represents the period from 1777, when the county was established, to 1830, when the Old Jail was built on Courthouse Square, with plants most likely present in Powhatan during that time. In that era, gardens in the colonies were largely functional rather than decorative, unlike the more common European style, and this garden uses formal beds to separate types of plantings for ease of use while retaining a less formal planting concept typical of the period. George Washington at Mount Vernon and ThomasbJefferson at Monticello had similar gardens. Powhatan's agricultural legacy predates the American colonial era, as Native Americans highly valued tobacco leaves and local tribes collected surplus corn as a tax long before Europeans arrived. Early settlers learned to raise these crops along with grain as major revenue producers, tobacco served as a levy in many church ledgers in place of money, corn was a major crop in Powhatan, and Native Americans taught early settlers to improve corn production by interplanting it with pole beans. Dozens of gristmills and farms used the James and Appomattox Rivers to ship goods to market.