Over 500 years ago, Native Americans traveled through the area that is now Holliday Lake State Park. They were Algonquian Indians, part of the Powhatan Confederacy. They used the area as a kind of preserve or natural area.

Chief Powhatan (from the Library of Congress)

While their villages were in the coastal region of Virginia, these Native Americans spent some of their time in Central Virginia. They came to use native stones for making projectile points and bowls or vessels. As their technology advanced, they used local clay to fire pottery.

Willis Mountain (about 15 miles away from Holliday Lake State Park) was a gathering place where meetings and ceremonies would take place. Small bands of Native Americans would have met there infrequently (maybe once every few years).

The headwaters of Holliday Lake

The Morris Field Site along the Appomattox River was the site of Longwood University's Archeology Field School for many years. Longwood University students determined that the Native Americans who lived along the Appomattox River (about 1/4 mile from the modern-day park) used the area seasonally as a base camp while making those projectile points. With such abundant wildlife, they would have also hunted deer, rabbits and turkeys. Surely they fished the Appomattox River too. It's possible that they may have harvested native grains and plants or even planted and cultivated maize (corn) there. The Longwood Archeology students, under the direction of Dr. Jim Jordan, collected a very large number of artifacts that the Native Americans left behind.

Holliday Lake today

When I think about the people who lived in this area long before I came along, it makes me want to take better care of this land. Just as they left something beautiful for me to enjoy, I want to leave things just as nice (or maybe a little better) for those who will come after me.

Just as the Native Americans found a place of quiet solitude, you can too find that at Holliday Lake State Park. The park is open every day of the year from daylight until dusk.

Holliday Lake State Park is located off Route 24 between Appomattox and U.S. 60 and from Routes 626, 640 and 692. See more information, or call the park office at 434-248-6308 or by email.

Drive Time: Northern Virginia, three and a half hours; Richmond, two hours; Tidewater/Norfolk/Virginia Beach, four hours; Roanoke, two hours. Click here for a map.