Let's Just Go Somewhere: Jamestown -- England's First

On Thursday morning, we packed a picnic lunch, put on lots of sunscreen, and drove about 30 minutes away to the Jamestown National Historic Park. At my mistaken direction, we turned into the Jamestown Settlement first.

But after going inside, we realized we were at the wrong place. We wanted the "real deal," the Jamestown National Historic Park. The nice lady inside gave us directions and then we drove a short distance further down the road to the "real deal."

Jamestown was the first permanent British settlement in North America. The settlement led by Captain John Smith was initially established as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607. It followed several earlier failed attempts including the Lost Colony of Roanoke in 1587. We toured that site back in 2014 when we were visiting the Outer Banks.

Upon going inside to the visitor center, we were told about an archaeological tour that would be starting in about 45 minutes and decided we would check that out after watching the informative movie inside the nice cool visitor center. :) After the movie, we walked outside across a boardwalk that stretched across a big area of marshland.

About 50 people went on the archaeological tour and our tour guide was a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic archaeologist named Danny Schmidt. We felt like we were being guided by Indiana Jones! :)

Jamestown Rediscovery is a huge archaeological project launched by archaeologist Bill Kelso with grant support from Preservation Virginia who actually owns the land where the archaeological site is located. At one time, it was believed that the fort built by Captain John Smith and the first English settlers had submerged in the James River. In fact, erosion had been so bad that a concrete seawall was built in 1900 and brief archaeological excavations by the National Park Service did not reveal any evidence of the fort.

However, Dr. Kelso had a theory that the standing 17th-century brick church tower was built near the center of the original fort based on a writing the Colony's secretary, William Strachey, that "a pretty chapel" stood "in the middest" of the fort. Although the original church is no longer standing, Kelso believed that a later church would have been built very near the original site of the first one, by the rationale "once sacred ground, always sacred ground." See www.historicjamestowne.org

Dr. Kelso's theory proved correct and we were fortunate to be guided by Danny Schmidt, an archeologist that has been with the project since it began in 1994. In fact, he even got married at the church on the site!

One of the first evidences of the fort wall was found near the base of this old monument that had been placed on the property many years before the Jamestown Rediscovery Project began. The fort wall in the below picture has been reconstructed where the fort walls originally stood.

Danny showed us where they could see based on the stains and composition in the dirt that fence posts had once been placed...

or rows had been cultivated for farming.

We walked by several archaeology students and interns continuing to work on the project.

The below picture shows the outer walls of the original church including where the altar rail would have been at the front of the church.

In 2015, four graves were found behind the altar rail.

Photograph of the actual dig site from 2015.

By corroborating DNA testing with the early written accounts of the Jamestown settlement plus how the bodies were buried and what they were buried with, they determined the four individuals to be Reverand Robert Hunt, Captain Gabriel Archer, Sir Ferdinanado Waiman, and Captain William West.
Part of what makes this archaeological discovery so interesting is that there is written historical evidence with which it can be corroborated. They must feel like they are on a big scavenger hunt with a million clues!

History recorded a period soon after the settlement began called "the starving time" where some of the settlers resorted to having to kill their horses and dogs for food. Unfortunately, evidence of cannibalism has been found as well by the marks found on the skeleton of a young 14 year old girl unearthed in what would have been the cellar of this home.

The crosses mark the graves of many of these early settlers who did not survive.

The tour was very interesting but was occurring in the middle of a very hot day. Danny tried to find us some shade to cool off in when possible.

At the conclusion of the tour, we went to the Archaearium where many of the artifacts were displayed.

The Archaearium is built where the original Virginia statehouse once stood. Jamestown was the Virginia Colony's Capitol from 1665 to 1698.

You could even see part of the original foundation under your feet inside the Archaearium.

After spending some time looking at all of the archaeological findings and exhibits and refreshing our memory on how Pocahontas fit into all of this, we headed back outside. (Quick recap on Pocahontas: Captain John Smith claims that Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's daughter, saves his life when she was a young girl. Later, Pocahontas ends up marrying Englishman John Rolfe. John Rolfe is who experimented with tobacco seeds and was the first to grow and export tobacco which became the Virginia Colony's main export.)

On the way back to the Visitor Center, we walked by the statue of Captain John Smith...

...and checked out the site where the second church had been built in 1639. All but the church tower was destroyed after abandonment in 1750 but the church as you see it today was rebuilt in 1907.

We could also see the concrete seawall that had been built in the early 1900's to help preserve the site from sinking into the river.

We walked back across the bridge and looked out at the marsh again. How would you have liked to walk through this muck in this heat back in the early 1600's???