[1] In 1614, Governor Thomas Dale sent 20 men, under Lieutenant William Craddock, to the area to establish a salt works and to catch fish for the colonists.
They settled along Old Plantation Creek at Dale's Gift on the mainland, but established the salt works on Smith Island.
On Sept. 29, 1717 he and Captain Benjamin Hornigold captured the sloop Betty off Cape Charles and plundered her cargo of Madeira wine and other valuables and scuttled the ship.
Three steel skeleton watchtowers constructed near the lighthouse by the US Army during World War II still stand on the island.
The Cape Charles light was discontinued by the US Coast Guard in 2019, but the lighthouse, the second tallest in the United States, remains standing on the island.