Countdown to Williamsburg

The time has been flying by, the best of intentions have gone by the wayside, and I find myself a couple of articles short. We'll be in the land between the York and the James very soon, just in time to celebrate Washington and Lafayette planning the siege of Yorktown. There should be lots of re-enactors there and I hope to come away with some very interesting pictures. But that's not all there is to do in Virginia's Historic Triangle. In this edition of Countdown to Williamsburg I'm going to take a look at some of them. I know last time I promised to go into how John D. Rockefeller, Jr. turned the vision of Dr. Goodwin for a restored Williamsburg into reality. Instead you can read the latest edition of Between the Covers and find out for yourself. Better yet, if you're really interested in the story of Colonial Williamsburg, buy a copy of the book or look for it at your local library. Complete ordering information is in the review.

Williamsburg, Jamestown amd Yorktown comprise virginia's Historic Triangle. In 1929 the then director of the National Park Sevice, Horace M. Albright, wanted to establish a colonial national monument. It would become the Colonial National Park and "physically link three sites that were bound together in history in Dr. Goodwin's estimation since 'Williamsburg is the continuation of Jamestown and Yorktown is the vindication of Williamsburg' " (from Colonial Williamsburg by Philip Kopper, pp191). They are interconnected by the 23 mile long Colonial Parkway which travels beneath Colonial Williamsburg in a

tunnel, undertaken as a New Deal project, so as not to disturb the carefully recreated 18th century ambience. One may now drive from the first permanent English settlement in North America to the site of the last major battle that spelled the end of British dominion in the colonies. An excellent article on the Colonial National Parkway is available on the Web. So, let's start at one end of the parkway and travel to the other seeing what we can see. First stop, Jamestown.

On May 13, 1607 one hundred and seven Englishmen arrived to begin their life in the New World. They moored their three ships to the trees on a island in a large river, the next day they went ashore to stay and Jamestown Colony was born. As an historic place Jamestown hasn't fared as well as others. When the colonial capitol moved to Williamsburg in 1768 Jamestown began to slowly fade into oblivion. It was under heavy cultivation by the 1750s, primarily by the Ambler and Travis families, used as a military post during the Revolutionary War, and fortified by Confederate troops during the Civil War. It wasn't until 1893 that 22 1/2 acres of Jamestown Island was given over to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) by Mr. and Mrs Edward Barney that any serious effort to preserve what little there was left above ground, predominantly the church tower erected in 1639, began.

The swiftly flowing James River had had more than one hundred and thirty years to erode the western shore of the island and many thought that James Fort erected by the early colonists had been reclaimed by the waters. In 1900, with federal assistance, a sea wall was erected to prevent

further erosion and in 1934 the entire island was aquired by the National Park Service and incorporated with the portion still owned by the APVA into the Colonial National Park.

The AVPA and the National Park Service continue to work with a veritable who's who of American archaeologists to uncover not only the physical facts of the Jamestown settlement but also the sociological artifacts that reveal the human story of that first group of English men and women as they set out to establish a European presence in the New World. In 1994 the Jamestown Rediscovery excavations began using the most modern methods of site discovery and preservation. In a little over 2 1/2 years they had uncovered enough evidence to conclusively demonstrate the remains of James Fort and September 12, 1996 was proclaimed Fort James Day by Virginia Governor George Allen.

Today the digging and the research continue. Every day adds a little more to our store of knowledge about Jamestown and its inhabitants. The site has a modern visitor's center where the questing traveller may obtain orientation information, schedule a ranger tour, or find out about costumed interpreter programs. You can take the "Old Towne" walking tour and see where the earliest residents lived. You can visit "New Towne" where later residents built more substantial homes, or

explore the island by driving either or both of the 3 and 5 mile wilderness loops.

Jamestown offers much for the traveller, the historian or anyone else interested in the history of America. I highly recommend the Jamestown Rediscovery Web site. There is so much informaiton on this one site I could easily have written an entire article on Jamestown alone. It allows the user to skim lightly over the surface or tunnel down deeply into the history of America's oldest permanent English settlement. I found the sections on the Jamestown exhibits especially interesting. There are wonderful descriptions and photographs of the artifacts discovered by Jamestown's archaeologists. The old helmets, breastplates, shield bosses, pike heads and other martial acoutrements are in some cases the only examples of these items ever recovered in North America. It is a rich site that promises to continue to yield its treasures for many years to come. Okay, next stop Yorktown.

Yorktown Battlefield, the site of the last major conflict of the Revolutionary War, is on the eastern leg of Colonial National Park. It consists of a visitors center, the Nelson and Moore historic houses, and the battlefield itself. At the easternmost point of the Colonial National Parkway is the Yorktown Victory Monument (shown at the right), authorized in 1781 to commemorate Cornwallis' surrender it was not actually begun until 1881. To the north lies the "town of York" with its historic houses and shops, the Watermen's Museum honoring those who plyed Chesapeake Bay in search of its maritime bounty. Jamestown and Yorktown both have state and federal facilities co-mingling and sharing the resources of those who come to experience the magic and mystery of this earliest of habitations in the English new world. Colonial National Park exists side by side with Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center operated by the State of Virginia, the "Old Dominion" herself. This provides the visitor with a great many choices while preserving a much larger portion of the historically significant area than could have been done by a single entity. It all boils down to there being more for you and me to see and do when visiting the area.

The Yorktown Victory Center provides a Continental Army Encampment where re-enactors demonstrate 18th century medical techniques, camp cooking, musket handling, and typical punishments for military transgressors. There is a 1780s farm where visitory van learn about the day-to-day life of a "middling" farmer. Re-enactors illustrate many of the techniques used by those early Virginians to coax a livelyhood from the soil. There are also exhibits like, Witness to Revolution where

10 people from different walks of life share their accounts of the struggle, Converging on Yorktown where the war's dramatic climax is examined, and Yorktown's Sunken Fleet that takes the visitor on an "underwater" re-creation of the excavation of some of the ships lost during the seige. Children can find their own special history in the Children's Kaleidoscope Descovery Room while they try on 18th century clothing, make rubbings of old woodcuts, or investigate reproduction artifacts.

The streets of old Yorktown, shown in the map at the right, are much as they were during the Revolution. The historic shops and houses paint a bucolic picture of America as it was. Just to walk among them is sure to stir your soul and make you proud of the journey our nation has taken as it was the first to walk upon the new highway of freedom. Many other nations have followed us down that road and others are taking those first faltering steps that can only lead them to a future as bright and glorious as our own.

I recommend most heartily that you explore the links I've listed in this installment of Countdown to Williamsburg. There is much useful information contained not only in these sites themselves but in the worthwhile links they contain. Even if you can't make a pilgrimage, which is what it truly is, to the "Land Between the York and the James" you can walk the streets of Old Yorktown or Jamestown Settlement through theie wonderful Web sites. I know I did,

I probably won't get out another article before we leave but you cab surely believe I will share our experiences and our pictures as Robin and I make for Americans what is certainly our patriotic trek.

These are not the only shrines to America, to be sure. Boston, Philidelphia, New York and other places also define and maintain our heritage for future generations. Perhaps we'll be able to travel to them on another trek.

I'll be sure and write as soon as we get back.

See y'all then!---Ed.

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