The historic Purton Bay site of Werowocomoco has been tapped as a future national park. Gloucester County will benefit tremendously from the attention to be shed officially and forever on the land where Powhatan’s Native Americans met the English.

All of this future excitement is due to the determination a decade ago of owners Lynn and Bob Ripley. They knew they had found something very unusual on their property; archaeologists suspected they had found Powhatan’s headquarters; and extensive exploration has confirmed those theories.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe visited the site last Tuesday, announced that funds to purchase it are in the president’s budget, and said “Let’s get it done.”

We echo that.

And we also bring up the not-so-little matter of the Middle Peninsula State Park, located a short distance down the shoreline of the York River adjacent to Rosewell. Authorized by state referendum more than a decade ago, its land purchased in 2005, it is stil...