Dave Hilbert's  
SoftSeatTravel

Jamestown
Jamestown Virginia
celebrated 400 years
of settlement by
Europeans in May of
2007. It was the 400 th
birthday of the USA.
At a dock in Virginia
on the James River
three meticulously
restored ships are
open for visitors.
Jamestown Virginia, USA
Jamestown,
Virginia
Four
Hundred
Years old  
Settlement in
USA,
Four Hundred Year
Celebration
Battle of Yorktown: pivotal
battle in the Revolutionary
War
Preserved and
re-created colonial era
town with 80 period
rooms and thousands
of authentic antiques,
costumed
re-enactments of
historical events

Other attractions in the area include the Bush Gardens theme park which offers a European
Renaissance extravaganza with rides, exotic food, and shopping. This  and Water Country
USA,the mid-Atlantic state's largest water theme park should keep the family entertained.

The area also has winery tours and tasting at the Williamsburg Vineyard and there is a huge
potters shop along with many upscale outlet malls.
The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a Commonwealth of
Virginia-run museum has buildt new exhibit space, re-created
colonial buildings and a new square-rigged replica ship.
Three ships of the era are open for viewing
The events unfolded four hundred years ago when Captain John Smith became leader of
the troubled expedition. Times were tough for the first settlers and without help from 12-year
old Pocahontus (Mischievous One) who befriended Smith and acted as intermediary
between her dad the Chief of the Powhatans and the English, they might not have survived.  
She visited the fort several times in 1608 and brought food for the group.

She later married a successful tobacco entrepreneur Englishman John Rolfe in 1614,  
traveling  to England to be introduced to royalty. She later died in England of disease in
1617 at 20 years of age.

During the second year of the settlement a second group arrived at Jamestown with intent
to harvest timber, mine gold, ship goods back to England and search for a water route to
the west. Eventually they established a colony and as more settlers arrived they expanded
beyond the island and built the settlement that would later become Williamsburg, the
Colonial capitol of Virginia.
The Museum has three full-scale replica ships tied at their
dock including a new replica of the Godspeed, one of the
ships that in 1607 brought the first group of English settlers
to the Americas.
The settlers came to Jamestown as explorers and
prospectors but eventually stayed to build the country now
called the USA.
Costumed historical interpreters
and the Jamestown site
demonstrate the art of making a
dugout canoe
A loop road around the Yorktown
battle site takes visitors to the various
cannon emplacements, some of them
original revolutionary War weapons.
Jamestown Virginia
Four Hundred Years of Settlement
at
Jamestown
Jamestown Virginia
Recreates Four Hundred Year Old
Settlement
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The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation display areas recreate life in the first successful
English settlement of the Americas. Visitors can experience hands-on history while learning
about Powhatan Indians, the first Africans to come to the colonies, and the first English settlers.    

Two other historic sites in the area re-enact historical events; Colonial Williamsburg and
the Yorktown Victory Center at the Revolutionary War battle site. The three sites are within
a twenty mile radius and each has costumed re-enactors that provide stunning visuals of history
when they dress as 17th and 18th Century Colonial men and women and play out events that led
to the Jamestown settlement and to the later Revolutionary  War.