Where English colonists first stepped ashore in 1607 — and Blackbeard's headless ghost still guards the dunes
2500 Shore Dr, Virginia Beach, VA 23451
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Vehicle day-use fee applies; check DCR website for current rates
Access
Wheelchair OK
Mix of paved paths, boardwalks, sand trails, and bald cypress swamp boardwalk; beach areas are sandy
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1936 · First English Landing 1607 · Chesapeake Indian Settlement · CCC Construction · National Register of Historic Places (Seashore State Park Historic District) · Blackbeard Coastal Operations
Cape Henry at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay was the first Virginia soil touched by the English colonists who would establish Jamestown. On April 26, 1607, the three ships of the Virginia Company — the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, carrying 105 passengers including Christopher Newport and John Smith — anchored here and the men rowed ashore. They camped for a few days, explored the surrounding woods, and encountered Chesapeake Indians before sailing west to find a more defensible position on the James River.
The park sits on the same strand where the Chesapeake Indians lived before the Powhatan confederation destroyed their tribe around 1607, a massacre that some accounts place shortly before the English arrival. In 1980, construction workers unearthed the remains of 64 Chesapeake Indians on the park's edge, confirming the violence that attended this shoreline long before English settlement.
The Commonwealth of Virginia purchased more than 2,000 acres from the Cape Henry Syndicate in 1933 for $157,000. Construction proceeded through the 1930s, with crews composed largely of African American Civilian Conservation Corps workers. The park was dedicated June 15, 1936, as Seashore State Park and renamed First Landing State Park in 1997 to reflect its historical significance.
The pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, operated along this coastline in the early 1700s, using Cape Henry as a vantage point to spot merchant vessels crossing into the Chesapeake. In November 1718, Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy killed Blackbeard at Ocracoke Inlet in North Carolina and reportedly severed his head. Local tradition holds that before his death, Blackbeard had buried treasure in the dunes near the park's Narrows.
Sources
The Blackbeard treasure story has circulated in Virginia Beach for at least a century. Teach allegedly buried his loot in the dunes near what is now the park's Narrows — where the cypress swamp meets the bay — before sailing south toward his death at Ocracoke. The reported sightings focus on a headless figure walking the dune line at dusk, a reference to his decapitation by Maynard's crew. Visitors have described mysterious footprints appearing in undisturbed sand and unexplained chilling breezes in otherwise still air.
A second layer of reported phenomena predates the Blackbeard legend entirely. The Chesapeake Indian remains unearthed in 1980 drew attention to the park's prehistoric violence. Some visitors report hearing what sounds like distant drumming in the cypress swamp sections of the trail system, attributed in local tradition to the spirits of the tribe destroyed by the Powhatan around 1607.
No organized ghost tours operate within the park and Virginia State Parks does not document or promote paranormal activity. The Blackbeard legend is primarily preserved through Virginia Beach tourism materials and independent researchers.
Notable Entities
Twenty miles of trails traverse maritime forest, bald cypress swamp, lagoons, and 1.5 miles of Chesapeake Bay beach. The Narrows area, where the swamp meets the bay, is the traditional center of the Blackbeard treasure legend. No ranger-led ghost programming is offered — visitors explore on their own.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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