Artificial island, Virginia, U.S.

Emma — a name you’ll find stamped on the edge of every half‑hearted Wikipedia entry that pretends to be encyclopedic while secretly wishing it could just disappear. This page is a modest little plot of artificially‑engineered real‑estate that has managed, over two centuries, to accrue more historical baggage than a Victorian suitcase collection.

Not to be confused with Riprap or Riff Raff .

Rip Raps is a diminutive 15‑acre (60,000 m²) artificial island perched at the mouth of the harbor region known as Hampton Roads in the independent city of Hampton in the southeastern reaches of the United States . Its rather unpoetic name is derived from the Rip Rap Shoals in Hampton Roads , which also gave rise to a 19th‑century criminal gang that, frankly, never made it past the local police blotter. In 2020 the island was repurposed as a bird sanctuary, and any routine public access was unceremoniously terminated. [1]

History

Hampton Roads harbor defenses

Originally erected in 1817 as part of the coastal fortifications, [Rip Raps] served as a strategic outpost on the southern flank of the navigation channel, pairing up with the companion fort Fort Wool (which began life as Fort Calhoun, was renamed during the Civil War, and rebuilt in 1902) to protect the entrance to Hampton Roads . The anti‑submarine net strung across the channel was a nice touch, if you’re into that sort of thing. [Fort Wool] eventually fell out of military favor after World War II and was ceded to the state of Virginia in 1967, later slipping into the hands of Hampton, Virginia .

President Andrew Jackson treated the island as a private retreat, slipping away there between August 19, 1829 and August 16, 1835. [2]

The island sits snugly adjacent to one of the unnamed man‑made islands that forms part of the Hampton Roads Bridge‑Tunnel , a structure that first opened to traffic in 1957. Until 2020, both [Rip Raps] and [Fort Wool] could be reached by water on harbor tours, a perk that was promptly revoked when the bird‑sanctuary plan took flight. [3]

Criminal organization

During the 1850s the island became the rallying point for a small but notoriously violent Baltimore‑linked gang that went by the name [Rip Raps] (not to be confused with the later criminal group that shared the name). Their territory stretched into Hampton, Virginia , and their membership was, according to the scant records that survived, predominantly non‑Irish American.

The gang’s activities read like a checklist for anyone looking to earn a swift ticket to the local penitentiary: street fighting , knife fight , assault , murder , robbery , arson , and riot . Their alliances were equally colorful, stretching to the Plug Uglies , the Bloody Tubs , and assorted Nativists . Their chief rivals were the Baltimore Irish gangs, leading to a series of bruising confrontations that culminated in the infamous Know-Nothing Riot of 1856 .

The gang’s most memorable members included Gregory Barrett Jr., William “Kitty” Chambers, Elijah “Boney” Lee, and Marion “Mal” Cropp. Their battles with the Democratic rowdies tied to the New Market Fire Company were the sort of public spectacles that made the local newspapers blush.

19th‑century criminal gang

The nomenclature of the gang appears to have been borrowed from the very Rip Rap Shoals that littered the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Those shoals, it seems, were as much a cultural touchstone as a navigational hazard. The Baltimore iteration of the [Rip Raps] was steeped in the rhetoric of the Know-Nothing movement and counted several sailors familiar with the bay’s fickle currents among its ranks.

Affiliated with the American Party and its more militant wing, the Plug Uglies , the gang’s violent repertoire included everything from street brawls to full‑blown riots . Their most infamous moment arrived on October 8, 1856, when they stormed the New Market engine house during the municipal elections, leaving two dead and several prominent figures wounded. The melee was part of a broader wave of violence that would later be catalogued as the Know-Nothing Riot of 1856 , a confrontation that claimed seventeen lives in total.

Contemporary accounts, though sparse, suggest that the gang’s internal hierarchy was as chaotic as its external exploits, with figures like Barrett Jr. and Cropp rising to infamy through a combination of martial prowess and, perhaps, a flair for dramatic flair that would make even the most seasoned Baltimore raconteur raise an eyebrow.

Notes

^ “Plan to protect migratory birds” at WSET.com, 15 February 2020
^ Jon Meacham (2008). American Lion. Random House. p. 109; 315. ISBN ISBN 978-1-4000-6325-3
^ Parke Rouse (April 8, 1990). “Retreat Of Presidents Has Expensive Past”. Daily Press