The Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers meet at West Point, Virginia to form the York River. The York River flows for 140 miles before draining into the Chesapeake Bay.

Yorktown, Virginia located at the mouth of the York River is where Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington, thus ending the Revolutionary War.

The Powhatan Indians occupied the river basin until driven away by European settlers in the fifteenth century.

A quiet cove on the York River is nestled at the base of a hill on which the Yorktown Victory Monument proudly stands.