Three Chopt at Short Pump Traditional Cache

In Short Pump Park, close to the original location of Short Pump Tavern, a historical building that had a pump with a 'short' handle. Park near the cell tower off Pump Road. Access is not easy and not recommended for small children. At the GZ you are 2-300 feet due south of the original "Pump" location at the Broad Street entrance to Wal-Mart. Cache is about where the old Three Chopt Road passed. It was the main stage coach road from Richmond to Charlottesville.

Three Chopt Road was the main stagecoach route between Richmond and Charlottesville, and being the predecessor of Broad Street, ran generally the same route as Broad does today except wound around more. Pouncey Tract Road intersected Three Chopt at a different angle than it does now with Broad. Also, Pump Road did not meet up with Pouncey Tract.Three Chopt wound through Short Pump near the the tavern which would have been almost exactly where the entrance to Wal-Mart is now located, off of West Broad Street. Robert Hyde Saunders constructed the tavern in 1815 and insured it with Virginia Mutual Insurance Company. A larger house was constructed after the original tavern building, plus a stable and a kitchen house. The stable was the next smallest building at 20 feet square. The kitchen building was 18 feet square. The handle of the pump, of which Short Pump is named, was cut off to enable it to function. The actual location of the pump is just to the north of where you are standing. If you look at old maps of where Three Chopt Road ran, you are about as close as possible to the original route, and original "Pump" without being on Broad Street

Three Chopt Road is described as the “Main road at the head of the Richmond Turnpike.” The tavern and house appear to have been right on the road. Short Pump Tavern was at the crossroads of Richmond Turnpike Road (now Broad), Three Notched Road (Three Chopt), and Pouncey’s Track (now Pouncey Tract) Road.

Robert Saunders’ land extended northward from Three Chopt back past the present locations of Interstate 64 and the Twin Hickory development. He owned possibly a thousand acres or more, according to records obtained at the Library of Virginia. A number of articles have been written about the area known as Short Pump in Henrico County, mostly as zoning changes have been presented, the result of development plans ever expanding the once primary road leading from Richmond to Charlottesville. Even the name of this road has changed a number of times from its first use during Colonial days as Richmond Turnpike, to Deep Run Turnpike, Route 250, and finally West Broad Street, which is the multi-lane highway that exists today.

As we drive westward past the shopping centers, office parks, gasoline stations, and parking lots, pause for a moment to take a trip back to an earlier time when life was simple and the road less traveled. Those who remember, look back with a sense of nostalgia. There is hardly a glimmer of the once rural community left as we recall the history of people and families that lived there whose hard work and sacrifices made possible the progress of today. Short Pump represents a long and interesting cross-road in American history.