Jamestown Settlement

This week we explored what is called the Historical Triangle:  Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.  To get to them we took the Colonial Parkway, a beautiful wooded road that runs along the York River on the east and the James River on the west.  Along the road are a number of pull offs with historical markers explaining the significance of certain spots.  We started our tour of Jamestown Settlement by stopping to read these markers.  Most of them commemorated stops and settlements associated with the settlers trip up the James River.  

Interesting tree roots

Jamestown Settlement is a re-creation of the original settlement which is not at this location.  The site consists of an extensive timeline museum, a gift shop of course, a small replica of one of the Powhatan villages, a re-creation of the fort, and a wharf with replicas of the three ships that originally brought the 104 men and boys to the new world.  Before our guided tour we had time to  view a short film explaining why people came to establish Jamestown--money--and perused a small temporary exhibit, no pix allowed of course.

All guides were in authentic costuming.

Inside a native house.  There were five in this site.  There would have been 20 or 30 in each location.

Inside the fort, there were several barracks buildings, a church, warehouse, blacksmith shop, governor's house where the important business was conducted, and some other buildings.

Our fort guide

A swab (sailor) talked about the perils of the trip from England to the new world, about the ships, and life aboard ship.

Pretty small

and cramped

Meanwhile, back at the fort.....we found the blacksmith shop

After our guided tour we toured the time-line gallery which was was extensive and very well done.  On our way home we finally stopped to photo this sign.  It apparently is all that is left of this service station site.  Interesting.

Next time, the real Jamestown.

Louise and Duane