Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report - USGS

USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program
Colonial National Historical Park
Field Creek, King Creek, West Branch Wormley, and Yorktown Creek. Tributaries that flow
through the park into the James River include Baptist Run Creek, Beaver Dam Creek, Black
Duck Gut, College Creek, Great Run Creek, Half-Way Creek, Passamore Creek, and Powhatan
Creek. The park has several large freshwater and brackish ponds formed by impoundments,
including Bracken's Pond, Jones Mill Pond, and Wormley Pond. A freshwater spring and a
small creek are found at Green Spring and a series of springs and seeps originate on Yorktown
Battlefield. Numerous sinkholes that hold water for a portion of the year occur in the Yorktown
Battlefield and along the Colonial Parkway between Yorktown and College creeks. These
features have formed over the past several hundred thousand years due to the dissolution of the
underlying carbonate-rich shell marl deposits.
Topographic relief in the park is typical for the Coastal Plain, where broad uplands are gently
dissected by streams. Locally, the relief can be quite rugged where short, high gradient streams
have incised steep ravine systems. Elevations range from sea level along the York and James
rivers and along tidal tributaries, to 27 m (90 ft) at Swanns Point on the south slopes over the
James River.
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