Powhaten

After our visit to MY Davidson State park we went to visit Powhaten a teeny town where about 100 people live and site of the Potwhaten Heritage Park. This also use to be the home of the Powhaten Indians and was once a thriving river town. We have been here before and have often pondered on these concrete columns that are on each side of the river. We figured they must of been part of a bridge but were surprised to finally see what the bridge actually looked like back in it's day.
 












At the park there is an old telephone exchange build from back in the days when they had to manually connect people and when we peeked in the window we saw this huge photo leaning up against the wall of the bridge. (They are in the process of restoring the old buildings) After some reading on the internet we found they built this suspension bridge in the hopes of revitalizing the town but they also destroyed half the town in the process. When it didn't help the town they decided they couldn't afford to maintain it and just pulled it down! The old house you see us sitting on the steps of - that was actually lived in until 1988 and when the elderly lady died she left it and the surrounding land and buildings to the park service.



























The other thing we love about this little town is it's beautiful old courthouse which sits on top of a hill overlooking the river. It has been completely restored and is still used as courthouse. If you look in the old photo of the bridge you can also see it on the hill as it was built in 1866.