Wilmington and Brandywine Valley

The Delaware Valley's earliest permanent European settlement began here in 1638, six years before William Penn was born.  This was when the Swedish warship Kalmar Nyckel landed at The Rocks, a natural wharf in the Minquas Kill, soon renamed the Christina River.  On March 29, settlers under the command of Peter Minuit, former Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, met with local Lenni Lenape chiefs, signed a treaty and founded the colony of New Sweden.

The Europeans gained rights to the land along the Delaware River, about 30 miles north and south of the mouth of the Minquas Kill.  The same day, the settlers began Fort Christina and built the first two log cabins in the New World, using a Finnish form of architecture.

Today, you can turn the clock back by visiting that spot – Fort Christina State Park – and the full-size recreation of the 139-foot Kalmar Nyckel, replete with ornate carving typical of 17th-century ships, working cannons and masts that reach 10 stories into the sky!   A short walk away is Old Swedes Church, built in 1698 by the early colonists, and one of America's oldest houses of worship in continuous use.

Multicultural Heritage
From the beginning, we have been multinational, multicultural and multiracial.  In June of 1638, the original Kalmar Nyckel sailed for home, leaving behind 25 brave men – 24 Swedes, Finns, Dutch and German settlers and one black freedman from the Caribbean, Anthoni "The Black Swede."  When the ship returned with women and children two years later, all 25 settlers were alive and well.  The Kalmar Nyckel made a total of four documented round-trip Atlantic crossings, more than any other colonial settlers’ ship of the period.

Agriculture and fur trading with Native American trappers were our first industries.  By the end of the 1600s, Brandywine Village had been established upstream along the swift-flowing Brandywine River, with mills for grinding corn and wheat.  With our fertile land, abundant forests and well-protected access to the Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean, we became a center of milling, distribution and shipbuilding.

New Sweden soon passed to Dutch and then English control in 1655, and finally became part of William Penn's Pennsylvania Colony in 1681.  Known as the three lower counties of Pennsylvania, we established our own legislature in 1704, with the appointed governor of Pennsylvania simultaneously serving as governor of Delaware.

In 1731, Thomas Willing laid out what he called "Willingtown," about a mile upstream on the Christina River from the New Sweden/Fort Christina settlement.  Willing's influence was challenged by other settlers, and the town was chartered by the crown in 1739 as Wilmington, in honor of Spencer Compton, earl of Wilmington, lord president of King George II’s Privy Council.

On June 15, 1776, we declared our independence from England and on July 4 joined the other 12 colonies in the struggle.  After the war and the failure of the Articles of Confederation as America’s first attempt at national governance, the new Constitution was written in 1787.  We were the first state to ratify the Constitution, on Dec. 7, 1787, and, thus, became the first state of the brand new United States of America.

Local Prosperity
In the 1780s and 1790s, paper and cotton mills were added to the Brandywine Village's existing flour mills. Fleeing the excesses of the French Revolution, Eleuthere Irenee du Pont de Nemours settled here in 1802 and opened his black powder mill, purchasing property along the Brandywine from the Hagley family.

From 1802 to 1921, these and other local mills produced powder for America's hunters, soldiers and construction projects, including the War of 1812, the Mexican War (1846-48), the Civil War (1861-65), the transcontinental railroad, the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Panama Canal.  From these gunpowder mills sprang the modern chemical industry which is still headquartered here, the DuPont Co., Hercules Inc. and ICI Americas Inc.

With the advent of railroads in the 1830s, our area became a major producer of fine passenger cars, including those you can still ride on the narrow-gauge Durango & Silverton in Colorado.  Today, that heritage continues with Amtrak's National Operations Center and extensive passenger car and locomotive maintenance facilities here.  Amtrak’s national training center is also located here.

In the 1970s, major credit card banks began moving to Delaware because of our business-friendly laws. As a result, Wilmington has become a major banking center for America.  Also, the vast majority of Fortune 500 corporations are incorporated in Delaware.

Fur trading, agriculture and milling, gunpowder and chemistry, ship and railroad car manufacture, modern electronic banking – they all played major roles in how we got to be the way we are!  They form the foundation on which our nationally and regionally recognized educational institutions and cultural attractions lie.

These institutions and attractions include the University of Delaware, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Opera House, the Delaware Theatre Company, Longwood Gardens, Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, the Brandywine River Museum, Nemours Mansion & Gardens, historic New Castle, the Hagley Museum, the Delaware Art Museum and the Delaware Museum of Natural History.