Jamestown and Williamsburg, VI

Friday we went in search of the first permanent settlement in the US – Jamestown, Virginia. We have all heard the stories of John Smith and Pocahontas from grade school, but it was a whole different experience being on-site. When we left the campground at 10 after the kids had finished their studies, we thought we would briefly visit the National Park site at Jamestown and then spend the majority of the day at the Jamestown Settlement, a commercial facility that was rumored to have excellent movies, ships and artifacts. As it turns out, we spent almost the entire day at the NPS site.

When we arrived at the visitor center they indicated a park ranger was starting a tour in five minutes. We bolted out the back door, through a herd of grade school kids, and across the bridge to the oblique that marks the 300th anniversary of Jamestown (now over 100 years old). As typical for the park service, the ranger did a wonderful job of making the history of the site come alive. She described how three ships of 144 men and boys from England arrived on Jamestown Island in 1607, after brief nasty engagements with the local Powhatan Indians at other points along the James River. They should have guessed that something wasn’t right with the location when there were no signs of other inhabitants. It turned out to be a great location for docking ships, but the brackish water and disease infested swamps were not the best place to build a fort. Most of the early inhabitants perished in the first few years due to malnutrition and disease. Eventually with the help of Pocahontas (who married John Rolfe, not John Smith) and a new crop called tobacco, they persevered. When a boat load of 90 “maids” arrived in 1619, the rest was history.

Over the years the town gradually moved off the river towards present day Williamsburg. The only original structure that remains is the church tower that was built in the 1630s. The church has been reconstructed, and most experts believed that the original fort was under water, claimed by the James River through erosion over the years. But a local professor who had studied early documents of Jamestown began an excavation in 1994 and uncovered the original site of the fort right next to the church. To date, they have recovered all kinds of artifacts and several skeletons of the early pioneers, which are nicely displayed in a museum right next door (yes, even the skeletons).

It was a magnificent fall day, so we took the loop drive around the park when leaving the visitor center. As it turned out, we never made it to the Jamestown Settlement, which saved us significant greenbacks but left us wondering what wonders we had missed. We stopped on the way home briefly at Colonial Williamsburg. Sitting next to William and Mary college, the town is a replica of what the area looked like back in Revolutionary War times. We only had time to visit a few shops before coming to the realization that one could spend an entire week in this area and not see everything. This seems to be a common thread wherever we stop!

Upon returning to the KOA campground the kids and I headed for the jumping pillow, a giant trampoline structure we have come to love. It has provided the best aerobic exercise on the trip so far, which is sorely needed with the generous meals Teressa has been cooking up lately!

PS – A couple of things I forgot to mention yesterday – 1) when we were at Monticello the tour guide indicated that the average size of a home around 1800 was roughly the size of Jefferson’s sitting room, or ~350 square feet, and 2) when we were discussing the election results Laura indicated that I should run for some significant office. “Right now I have to tell my friends that my dad is unemployed and we live in a trailer”, she said with a grin! I prefer to think of us as explorers of history, traveling the land in our Colonial-sized cabin on wheels! ;-)