There has been a little geography mixed into the notes recently and I am going to continue with more geography. At www.germanna.com/CulPepCo.htm , I have put a special page to show the Great Fork of which the Little Fork was a part. (You may want to print out this page and then use it in comparison to the map.)
The Great Fork starts where the Rappahannock River splits into two, almost equal, branches, the Rappahannock and the Rapidan. Originally, the two branches were known as the North Branch and the South Branch of the Rappahannock, but Lt. Gov. Spotswood renamed a few features in Virginia to be able to incorporate Anne into the name. Some of the real confusion comes even later when the North Branch of the Rappahannock became known as the Hedgman River.
On the map, along the Rapidan or southern branch, Fort Germanna was right underneath the words Great Fork within the big horseshoe bend of the river. This is where the First Colony lived for the first five years (approximately). As you go up the Rapidan, the first watercourse on the left is Fleshmans Run (now sometimes called Fields Run). The little run off of Fleshmans Run is German Run. The next big stream into the Rapidan, after a couple of little runs, is Potatoe Run. The Second Colony was spread out along the Rapidan from Fleshmans Run to the west of Potatoe Run.
Incidentally, the distance from the S of "Scale" to the 6 of "6.3" is one inch or 6.3 miles. After going twenty miles up the Rapidan from Germanna, the Robinson River flows into Rapidan. It flows from the northwest. Just west of the word Robinson there are two streams. On the north side is Deep Run and on the south side is White Oak Run. Right around these two streams and along the Robinson is the site of the permanent homes of the Second Colony.
The town site marked as Fairfax is now known as Culpeper. Modern Culpeper County consists of the eastern third of the Great Fork. Madison Co. consists of the southwest part of old Culpeper County. Rappahannock County consists of the northwest part of the old Culpeper. The original Culpeper County was the same as the Great Fork. Germantown, or the first permanent homes of the First Colony, was in what became Fauquier County a few miles to the east of the Rappahannock River about at the level of the Little Fork.
The Little Fork was defined as the area between the Rappahannock and the Hazel or Elk or South River (take your pick). See the Little Fork map for more details. Two other geographical features were commonly used in the Great Fork. The Gourdvine Fork was above (to the west of) the Little Fork. References are made to Little Fork of the Rapidan and I am not positive about the location for this. I believe that it is the land between the Rapidan and the Robinson River. The name was not used consistently. Maybe Barbara Vines Little, who has studied the land in this general area, could clarify the definition.
The map is reproduced from the centerfold of The Culpeper Classes. Another page on the web site tells more about the booklet.
(16 Dec 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.