Jolly's Mill Pond in Williamsburg, Virginia

On a quiet stretch of water just outside Williamsburg, recipes, archives, and heirloom crops are revealing stories that conventional history has overlooked. Dating back to the late 18th century, Jolly’s Mill Pond has become an outdoor classroom where Black, Indigenous, agricultural, and culinary histories are explored together around a shared table. In the late 1700s, the pond and its dam were created to power a gristmill that served the surrounding community. Although the mill disappeared long ago, the landscape continued evolving through centuries of farming, recreation, and changing owne...