A landscape of broad rivers, sheltered creeks, family stories, and the imagined My Island.
In Tidewater Virginia, a river can feel as wide as a bay. This fictionalized visitor-style map introduces the setting of Victoria Campos’s childhood: Irvington, Carter’s Creek, Mosquito Point, Windmill Point, and Stingray Point.
Illustrated, interpretive map—not a navigation chart, not to geographic scale. My Island is a fictional, much smaller island imagined just east of marshy Mosquito Island.
In July 1608, while exploring Chesapeake Bay and its rivers, Captain John Smith was injured by a stingray near the mouth of the Rappahannock. Accounts describe Smith spearing the animal, then being struck by its venomous barb as he handled it. The swelling and pain were severe enough that he feared he would die.
Smith recovered, and tradition holds that he ate the stingray that evening. The incident is remembered in the name Stingray Point near the river’s mouth.
A local tradition also connects Smith’s recovery with Indigenous healing across the Rappahannock near Antipoison Creek. That detail is best presented as local tradition, not as an independently established fact.
The point, creek, and river belong to the real landscape that inspired Victoria’s fictional childhood.
Editorial note: Check primary-source wording and historical references before public release.