A swollen Falling CreekThis 1888 map of
Chesterfield County shows how Falling Creek rises in the
Salisbury section of northwestern Chesterfield County (near the
Midlothian coal mines) and flows through
Southside Richmond to the James River.
Falling Creek is a tributary of the
James River located near
Richmond, Virginia, United States. Approximately 23 miles (37 km) in length,[1] it varies in width between 10 feet (3.0 m) at its source to several hundred feet in the Falling Creek Reservoir. Falling Creek rises in the
Salisbury section of northwestern
Chesterfield County, flows through
Southside Richmond and empties into the James River roughly one mile south of the Richmond city limits. A dam located in the Meadowbrook section of the county at Hopkins Road forms the Falling Creek Reservoir, formerly used as northern Chesterfield's drinking water supply.
In 1621, Falling Creek was the site of the first lead mines in North America.
From 1750-1781, the port town of
Warwick was located at the confluence of Falling Creek with the James River. During this period it was also the site of Chesterfield or Cary's Forge. This was a finery forge used to convert high carbon pig iron to low carbon iron which was built and operated by
Archibald Cary of
Ampthill Plantation. On April 30, 1781, General
Benedict Arnold's British troops burned the town, destroying ships, warehouses, mills, tannery storehouses, and ropewalks. The
Lost Town of Warwick no longer exists, but its place in history is noted on a Virginia Historical Marker nearby. The area where Warwick was located is occupied by the Spruance Plant and related industrial complex of the
DuPont Company.
Midlothian area
coal mines of the Richmond Basin were located along Falling Creek near the point of origin. From a point there in the valley created by on Falling Creek, the
Chesterfield Railroad, the first railroad in Virginia, was built beginning in the late 1820s to transport the product to port at the Town of
Manchester (which later became South Richmond).[citation needed]
^U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data.
The National MapArchived 2012-03-29 at the
Wayback Machine, accessed October 24, 2011