HISTORIC TREASURE, NATURAL GEM RV Friendly Fort Monroe, Virginia
Story & Photos by Paula Loehr
Here’s a shout out to RVers who like to pursue a variety of special interests in one location. If there’s a Mid-Atlantic road trip on your travel wish list, there’s no need to choose between a fascination with American military history and your affinity for Mother Nature. In the vicinity of Hampton Roads, Virginia, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Fort Monroe is a historic treasure and a natural gem—all contained in one relatively quiet, RV-friendly destination. Named for America’s largest-ever stone fortress, Fort Monroe has attracted military veterans and civilians interested in armed services history since the early 1900s. For centuries beforehand, the fort site has commanded the attention of many distinguished residents and visitors. Archaeological evidence indicates that Paleo-Indian hunters first inhabited the area’s spruce and fir woodlands at least 12,000 years ago, with the formation of a “big bay” occurring 2,000 years after their arrival. As fish and shellfish populations rose several thousands of years later, the Algonquian people named the sparkling bay “Chesapeake,” which translates to “Great Shellfish Bay” in their language. In 1607, the area was explored by Capt. Christopher Newport and named Point Comfort by Capt. John Smith. By 1609, Smith had established Fort Algernon at Old Point Comfort— the current site of Fort Monroe. A fire destroyed the first fort, and its masonry replacement—Fort George—was built on the same site in 1727, then flattened by a fierce hurricane in 1749. The Union Army commenced construction of Fort Monroe—
Fort Monroe Museum features realistic battle scenes.
named to honor fifth U.S. President James Monroe—in 1819. In an offensive reaction to local British aggression during the War of 1812, the stone-studded fortress was designed to secure Hampton Roads Harbor, thus providing an impermeable coastal defense of the Chesapeake Bay. Since its earliest days, the moat-protected stone walls of Fort Monroe sheltered an eclectic parade of legendary characters. During 1828-29, famed horror writer Edgar Allen Poe was stationed at Fort Monroe as an enlisted Regimental Sergeant Major. Following a brief checkered record of army service (including alleged appearances on the drill field wearing nothing except his hat), Poe’s family employed a substitute soldier to conclude his tour of duty. Poe returned to Fort Monroe in 1849 (just before his death) to recite “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” at the Hygeia Hotel, where he reportedly courted a cluster of female admirers on the veranda. From 1831 through 1834 (the year of the fort’s completion), a youthful Lieutenant Robert E. Lee was engineering supervisor at the Fort Monroe construction project. Robert’s wife, Mary Custis Lee, moved to Fort Monroe in 1831 and the Lees’ first son was born onsite in 1832.
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