Marsh Boardwalk

Marsh Boardwalk. R. Garland Dodd Park at Point of Rocks. In 1608, when exploring the Appomattox River, the James River's largest tributary, Smith found verdant marshes the likes of which can still be seen along Ashton Creek. Referred to as bread-basked marshes, these creek-fed wetlands yielded many dietary staples of the Native population., Indians frequently established summer camps near marshes, where they harvested wild rice, the seeds of pickerel weed, and the edible roots of arrow arum, which was dried and pounded into a mush. Indians also wove mats of dried reeds, which they layered atop bent saplings to fashion sturdy buildings called Yeehawkawns. Often, women and older children did the vital work of harvesting marsh plants and spent much of the winter weaving reed mats., By contrast, only men and "boys" - most of them teenagers - settled at Jamestown in 1607. The first female English colonist, Mistress Forrest, arrived in 1608, but it was not until 1619 that the Virginia Company of London began to recruit women. Many historians agree that the arrival of women - 90 in 1620 and 57 more in 1622 - had a stabilizing effect on the formerly fractious colony., (sidebar) , Tuckahoe Bread, John Smith, in the description accompanying his 1612 Map of Virginia, wrote how Algonquins cooked the starchy roots of Tuckahoe, harvested from freshwater marshes, to make bread. "The chiefe roote they have for foode is called Tockawhoughe. It groweth like a flagge in low muddy freshes. In one day a Savage will gather sufficient for a weeke. These rootes are much of the greatnes and taste of Potatos. They use to cover a great many of them with oke leaves and ferne, and then cover all with earth in the manner of a colepit; over it, on each side, they continue a great fire 24 houres before they dare eat it ... yet in sommer they use this ordinarily for bread." Smith also recorded the harvest of wild onions and of other roots for use in medicines and dye.