Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Disputanta, VA

Disputanta is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George County, Virginia, in the Richmond–Petersburg region, with ZIP code 23842.

Disputanta was first listed as a census-designated place in the 2020 census, which counted 373 residents.

Popular legend holds that Disputanta got its unusual name because railroad builder William Mahone and his wife Otelia could not agree on a name for the new station and invented one in honor of their dispute.

The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad through Disputanta was completed in 1858, and the line later became part of the Norfolk and Western and then Norfolk Southern railway.

Disputanta was a thriving rail town in the first half of the 20th century, an important stop because of its two 50,000-gallon water tanks that supplied steam locomotives, and it once had nine stores, three banks, two peanut warehouses, and a sawmill.

When the railroad replaced its last steam locomotives with diesels around 1960 and ended passenger service, trains stopped calling at Disputanta and the community shrank to roughly 75 homes, two churches, a fire station, a post office, and an elementary school.

In the late 19th century, more than 700 Czech and Slovak families settled in Prince George and neighboring counties for the cheap farmland available after the Civil War, and their descendants still farm the land around Disputanta.

The historic Chester Plantation, on U.S. Route 460 just west of Disputanta, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Prince George County, formed in 1703 and named for Prince George of Denmark, has no incorporated towns at all, so communities like Disputanta are entirely unincorporated.