Pagan River
The Pagan River (Warraskoyak) is a 12.5-mile-long (20.1 km)[1] tributary of the James River located in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The historic town of Smithfield is located on the banks of this river.
The name of the river may come from the Algonquin language word for pecan (Cree pakan, Ojibway pagan, Abenaki pagann) "that which is cracked with a tool" referring to the nut. When the area was explored in the early 1600s there were many pecan trees along the banks.[2]
References
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed April 1, 2011
- ^ http://articles.dailypress.com/1993-04-18/news/9304180225_1_indian-names-place-names-powhatan-indians