It is surrounded by the Dutch Gap Conservation Area, an 810 acre mixture of woodlands and wetlands operated by Chesterfield County, Virginia.

As discussed below, the channel was re-dug during the American Civil War, which created Farrar's Island, which after further dredging became the main course of the James River around 1870.

At the time, the First Anglo-Powhatan War was raging, and the Indian tribes of Virginia offered continuous resistance to colonial settlement, largely orchestrated by native leader Nemattanew — or as the colonists knew him, "Jack-of-the-Feather".

Reverend Alexander Whitaker converted her to Christianity during her captivity at Henricus under Sir Thomas Dale, deputy governor of the colony.

In 1619, the historic First Virginia General Assembly met at Jamestown and passed their 5th Petition: "Send men to erect the Colledge", referred to it as "A worke of Conversion", and set aside land for it adjacent to and above Henricus.

During the American Civil War, it played a minor role in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign and in 1865 the Battle of Trent's Reach, one of the last major naval engagement of the conflict, was fought offshore.

In the interim, Union General Benjamin Butler ordered troops to excavate the narrow neck of Farrar's Island on which Henricus was located to create the Dutch Gap Canal in an attempt to bypass Confederate defensive batteries along the James River.

After archealogical excavations, the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1972 listed the 12-acre (4.9 ha) archeological site in Chesterfield County as Henrico.