Chesapeake Bay waterfront real estate in Virginia's Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula Anderson Bay

Anderson Bay
Your experts in real estate on Virginia's Chesapeake Bay

New Point Comfort Preserve ~ Mobjack Bay ~ Chesapeake Bay

At the extreme southern tip of Mathews County, where Mobjack Bay meets the Chesapeake, there is a boardwalk across the marsh to an Observation Deck with a view of the New Point Comfort Lighthouse. We were in Mathews for a home inspection and decided to chek it out. Here are some pictures from our trip.

This is a picture from the boardwalk, looking back towards the parking area. As you approach the end of the road, a historical marker lets you know you are nearing a special site. It reads: "New Point Comfort Lighthouse"

"Standing at the end of what was once the southernmost peninsula in Mathews County, now surrounded by water, the lighthouse marks the entrance to Mobjack Bay. Authorized by Congress in 1801, this 55-foot-high sandstone tower with its spiraling stone steps to the lighthouse cage, was built in 1805 by Elzy Burroughs, the first keeper. Except for a brief time during the Civil War, the light operated from 1806 until 1963. It is the third-oldest lighthouse still standing on Chesapeake Bay. A keeper's dwelling once stood next to the lighthouse on a five-acre tract."

Once you reach the Observation Deck, more information is available on several plaques. One of these reads as follows.

"Welcome to New Point Comfort Preserve, a nature preserve owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy. Please enjoy its beautiy while respecting this special place.

Cultural History
The beautiful New Point Comfort Lighthouse testifies to the changing shores of the Chsapeake Bay. Commission in 1804 by Thomas Jefferson, the lighthouse was built on the southeastern tip of Mathews County. The lighthouse rests now on a tiny island inthe Bay near New Point Comfort Island, which was separated from the mainland by a great storm in 1933.
New Point Comfort Island was acquired by The Nature Conservancy in 1979 and given to Mathews County as a natural area in 1982. In 1994, the Conservancy purchased 95 acres to form the core of the preserve you visit today. Subsequent donations by private landowners have expanded the preserve to 111 acres as of 1997.

With Thanks
The Nature Conservancy thanks Eva Lowe for drawing and donating the illustrations on these signs, Kenny Dale, Earl Soles, and Dennis Baker for assistance in writing the text, and Wayne Hudgins for project coordination.

Natural History
Here at the tip of the New Point Comfort peninsula, three bodies of water meet - Mobjack Bay, the Ware River, and the Chesapeake Bay - creating diverse habitat for many plants and animals. New Point Comfort has three major natural habitats: tidal salt marsh, maritime forest, and sandy beach.
The tidal salt marsh, visible from here, is one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth. Dominated by saltmeadow cordgrass, the marsh provides valuable food sources for many animals, including commercial and sport fish, shorebirds, and crabs.
As the ground rises slightly, the salt marsh gives way to maritime forest, dominated by loblolly pine and thickets of greenbrier and poison ivy. Deer, raccoon, (and mosquitoes!) thrive in these woods. The variety of food sources, thick cover, and the peninsula's strategic location along the Atlantic flyway combine to make the preserve an excellent spot for migratory birds. At various times of year, nearly two hundred species of birds nest or rest at New Point Comfort.
The forest opens to the ever-changing beaches of the Chesapeake Bay. The sandy beach provides habitat for colonial nesting shorebirds and the northeastern beach tiger beetle (Cicindela dorsalis dorsalis). A federally threatened species, this beetle once ranged from coastal Virginia to Massachusetts. As the Atlantic coast has developed, the beetle has been confined to just a few beaches in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virginia.
Like many people, the tiger beetle prefers beaches with fine white sand, a gentle slope, and low wave action. Vehicles, people, and dogs on the beach can collapse the burrows in which young beetles mature, ulitmately driving the local population to extinction. The beach also provides ideal habitat for the piping plover, a federally endangered species, and the least tern, a federally threatened species. Like th etiger beetle, these beach-nesting birds require open beaches and are easily frightened away from their nests by human activity.
Animals such as the tiger beetle, least tern and piping plover have adapted to the dynamic conditions of life on the beach shaped by storms, wind, waves, and currents. In winter, storm surges break down beach dunes, moving sand to offshore sandbars. Much of this sand is returned to the beaches in summer by gentle waves. Major storms "roll back" the beach as waves wash over the dunes, carrying sand from the bay or the beach into the marsh. Over time, New Point Comfort's beaches will "migrate" westward, and the spot where you now stand will be a beach!"