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The Discovery Days Festival, a two-day event at Aquia Landing, appears to have been a successful mix of history and fun. Date published: 8/21/2006
By CATHY DYSON Visitors and sponsors alike called the Discovery Days Festival at Aquia Landing this weekend a success--and said they can't wait for the next one. "This has been great, it's been everything we could have hoped for," said Paul Milde, who represents Aquia District on the Stafford Board of Supervisors. He hoped the two-day event would bring at least 5,000 people to the county park, which is at the confluence of Aquia Creek and the Potomac River. When almost 6,000 showed up on Saturday alone--despite stifling temperatures near the 90s and little breeze from the water--Milde said he knew the event was a success. Steady crowds also attended the festival on Sunday, but attendance figures weren't available at press time. The big draw was a replica of the Godspeed, one of three sailing ships that brought settlers to Jamestown in 1607. The colony became the first permanent English settlement in America, but it might not have survived without Stafford connections. The Patawomeck Indians of Virginia gave the colonists food when they were starving, said Robert "Two Eagles" Green, chief of the tribe. "In some essence, we saved Jamestown, but how many people living in Stafford County know that?" Green wondered. Many festivalgoers had no idea what happened in the area over the centuries, said Jane Conner, a member of the Stafford County Historical Society. "Shocked, they're absolutely shocked," she said. "They didn't realize Stafford had so much history. Especially the kids. They say, 'John Smith was here? Abraham Lincoln was here?'" Indeed he was. President Lincoln visited Aquia Landing six times during the Civil War--three in 1862 and three in 1863. The landing became a major depot for Union soldiers and their supplies. "This was such a busy port" during the war, Conner said, as she pointed to photos showing sailing ships and freighters in the harbor and railroad cars nearby. "Every day, one million pounds of food came in for the horses and mules," Conner said. Two-and-a-half centuries earlier, Capt. John Smith visited Aquia Creek on trading missions. In 1611, the Indian princess Pocahontas was there as well--and was kidnapped by an English captain.
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