Much of the low-lying land along the James River which now constitutes Fort Eustis was known in colonial times as Mulberry Island, and was first settled by English colonists shortly after Jamestown was established in 1607.

As a landowner, he was a member of the House of Burgess, Jamestown, Virginia Colony and recorded in attendance 16 October 1629, representing Mulberry Island along with another owner, Thomas Harwood.

Among those who almost left was John Rolfe, who had departed England with his wife and child in 1609, with some very promising seeds for a different strain of tobacco which he hoped would prove more favorable to export from Virginia than had been the experience to date.

The turning point at Mulberry Island delivered Lord Delaware and businessman-farmer John Rolfe, two very different men, back to Jamestown, where they and the others were to find new success.

Lord Delaware's skills and resources combined with Rolfe's new strain of tobacco to provide the colony with effective leadership structure as the new cash crop began financial stabilization by 1612.

Camp Abraham Eustis was established as a coast artillery replacement center for Fort Monroe and a balloon observation school.

[1] A few miles upstream along the James River, a satellite facility, Camp Wallace, was established in 1918 as the Upper Firing Range of for artillery training.

Many years later, the Army's aerial tramway was first erected at Camp Wallace and later moved to Fort Eustis near the Reserve Fleet for further testing.

The tramway supplemented beach and pier operations, used unloading points deemed unusable due to inadequate or non-navigable waters, or to traverse land that was otherwise impassable.

[3] In 1971, the U.S. Army agreed to a land swap with Anheuser-Busch in return for a larger parcel which is located directly across Skiffe's Creek from Fort Eustis.

The Base Realignment and Closure directives from the U.S. Congress, resulted in the U.S. Army Transportation School and Center moving to Fort Lee, Va.

A portion of the U.S. Maritime Administration's National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) is anchored in the James River adjacent to Mulberry Island.

Since the start of the 21st century many of these ships, some dating back to the World War II era have been removed under contracts with scrapping companies.