Jamestown

Jamestown celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2007, where they had three days of festivities in the Historic Jamestowne, Jamestown Settlement and Anniversary Park. To commemorate the founding of Jamestown, Virginia as the first permanent English settlement in America, they featured cultural events, interactive exhibits, family oriented programs, interpretative demonstration and production shows among others.

The Historic Jamestowne has ongoing diggings of archaeological artifacts from the site of the original James Fort, where you can get a glimpse of the past. The Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists have unearthed more than a million artifacts used by the settlers from kitchen tools to trade items to breastplates and coins dated back to 1602. These amazing discoveries led us to find out how they’ve lived, survived and protect themselves during those times. The archaeologists believed that the original James Fort based on archaeological evidence was about 1.1 acres and the three walls of triangle were palisades made with timber posts and upright logs held together by timber planks.

The Archaearium is a new facility that showcases the objects that were excavated from the old James Fort, which belonged to the Jamestown colonist 400 years ago. The virtual viewers allow visitors to view where the artifacts were recovered and what the fort would have looked like 400 years ago.

The Jamestown Settlement (ship pictured) was where 104 English men and boys began their settlement on the banks of James River. They were America’s first permanent English colony.

Today, Jamestown Settlement has re-creations of the three ships brought by the colonists; the Susan Constant, Godspeed and the Discovery. They also re-created the Powhatan Village where visitors can learn about the tribes’ way of life and learn about Pocahontas, the daughter of the powerful leader of 30-some Algonquian speaking tribes named Powhatan.

Visitors can enjoy the new 30,000-square-foot gallery where the new exhibits examine the relationships among the European, the first African-Americans and the Powhatan Indians. There’s also a documentary film, which is shown every half an hour in the museum theater.

The Yorktown Center has indoor/outdoor exhibits about the Revolutionary War and events like the American colonies declaring their independence from Britain and the lives of ordinary people whose lives were changed because of the Revolutionary War.

Visitors can tour a re-created Continental Army encampment and learn about the American soldier’s way of life at the end of the war.