Historic Jamestowne

There are two Jamestowns in Virginia. The Jamestown Settlement is operated by the state of Virginia. It is a reconstruction of the original colonial Jamestown, including costumed performers, and replicas of the ships that landed on the shores of the James River in the early 1600's. Then, there is the actual Historic Jamestowne, operated by the National Park Service.

Our visit yesterday was to the latter. I mention this because the two are situated side by side, and it was confusing. We first parked and walked into the former. As it turns out, there is an entry fee, and we were under the impression that we could get in for a reduced price with our NPS "geezer" passes. With that in mind, we visited the latter first. Here's a map of the area.

One first crosses a modern footbridge over a marshy area. The fort is visible off in the distance.

There is a monument erected there honoring this first settlement.

You know you're old when even monuments erected to you are more than a century old.

Walking to the left, we entered the area where the original fort stood.

Here is an artist's rendering of what it might have looked like. This was shown on the sign, which is somewhat weathered, and so it's a little difficult to see. I'll show you a scale model in just a bit.

The original English settlers numbered 104 when they landed here in 1607 after a 5-month voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

Looking up from that sign, one sees this:

In these modern times, ferries can be seen traveling back and forth.

The harsh winter of 1609-1610 came to be known as the "starving time."

Nearly two-thirds of the colonists died.

With the arrival of much-needed supplies, more settlers, and a successful crop of tobacco, the colony survived, thanks to the efforts of Pocahontas, John Smith, and John Rolfe.

My pictures are a little out of order here to help tell the story. As you approach the fort, the first thing you see is this brick church. It was the only structure in the original fort built from brick, and so it is the only thing that has survived the centuries. Even at that, this is a reconstruction, as I'll show you in just a minute.

We walked around to the front side.

 Here is the entrance.

Inside, there is an archaeological dig in progress.

You can see some of the original bricks there in the floor.

This is how the reconstructed ceiling looks.

Just inside the entry, it is possible to see what remains of the original structure. It extends only about a foot above ground. The remainder has been rebuilt.

To the left of this structure is a reconstruction of The Barracks.

Nothing built from mud and wood is going to survive 400 years, but this is what it might have looked like.

Archaeologists have uncovered the foundations of these structures, and so that provided clues about where the support beams should go.

They had to protect the fort from attacks by the indigenous population and they also worried about the Spanish.

Here is the scale model I promised you.

The original fort spanned only about one acre of land.

Being only one acre originally, it is a small area to explore now. The artifacts from the archaeological dig can be found housed in a modern structure nearby.

This is another place I could have taken thousands of pictures, but I limited myself to just a few I found particularly interesting. This signet ring, for example.

This was the accompanying placard.

There were also children among the original settlers. Here is some information about them.

These toy horses were small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

Of course, I knew you'd be interested in the sewing equipment, and so I've included images of the placards along with the artifacts. I'll just let you read and look.

There were also buttons and beads. Human remains are housed in this building, and they are identified according to the level on which they were found. The man mentioned here was found on the JR level.

The numbers associated with these items can be seen in the images that follow. These next images are a "key" to understand what you'll be seeing afterward.

Oh yes...and in my weirdness, this excited me. Some time ago, I added the word "tenterhooks" to my vocabulary. When one is "waiting on tenterhooks," one might also be said to be "waiting with bated breath," or "anxiously waiting." Well, my friends. Here are the actual tenterhooks!

Knowing this, I think I can say my life is complete. But before I die, let's just take a look at the beads, shall we?

And by then, our eyes were pretty full, and so we drove on to the Glasshouse where one can see glass-blowing demonstrations. It says "Woodland Trail" in the image below, but we actually drove and parked here, then walked the trail.

This is all that remains of the original glass-blowing furnace.

I visited Historic Jamestowne when I was a child of about 5 or 6...long before I qualified for a "geezer" pass. I can recall visiting the original structure, which was built in 1957. It burned down in the mid-70's and was rebuilt.

Visitors nowadays see this structure.

This is a replica of the original furnace.

Please keep your arms and hands inside the vehicle at all times because this sucker is hot(!) at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The original settlers had to burn wood for two weeks to get the furnace that hot. They burned through 2-3 cords of wood per day.

These metal tubes are first heated in the furnace, and then they are used to scoop globs of molten glass from the hole you see in the image above.

Two costumed gentlemen were making a glass bowl similar to the one below.

Here, he's scooping the first of the glass from the furnace.

It's then rolled and shaped and blown into a globe shape.

The other man added a bit of glass to the bottom.

Which was then shaped into a base.

Eventually it was opened up into a bowl shape.

There were items for sale in an attached gift shop. I tried and tried and tried to convince myself that I needed something from here. There were little cream pitchers that I thought might be used to warm maple syrup for our pancakes. I asked the woman in the store if they were microwave safe. No, they were not. Not oven safe, not microwave safe, not dishwasher safe...not that we have a dishwasher in the RV (yet). Anyway, upon hearing that, I realized that they were all dust collectors, and I think I'm done collecting things that have no purpose in life. Except for refrigerator magnets. Those I'll collect until my dying day. What about the shot glasses, you ask? One word: Tequila.

So we were hungry by that time. We considered going back to the Jamestown Settlement and ponying up the cash to pay our admission. Then, we decided it would probably be similar to colonial Williamsburg, on the slate for today's visit. Instead, we "Yelped" for a place where I could get some fried oysters. I've been Jonesing for them ever since we got near the Chesapeake Bay. We found them at this place.

Yum. I do loves me some oysters, breaded and fried. No, not raw. Don't even talk about it. Yuck. Oh yes, and I thought you might enjoy seeing this gardening idea. Oyster shells as an alternative to bark dust.

After that, we had a couple of items to pick up at the grocery store, and then we headed back to the RV.

We finally got Smitty out for a walk. We've been trying to convince him to get outside since French Creek State Park, back before Washington, D.C. He has steadfastly refused to wear his harness, and that's the only way it's happening. Finally, he gave up the fight. Mike took him out for a nice long walk of about an hour. As I mentioned earlier, we pretty much have this huge campground to ourselves, and so they saw no woofies, and no people...and we do not like to see either when we are Smitty.

Sadie watched and whined from her catio. Sorry, Baby.

I finished off the stitching on the third of three dresses for this quilt block.

Here's how this piece is looking so far. Oh, wait. Excuse me.

Pardon me.

There we go. Those orange flowers aren't as iridescent as they appear in the image...they're really just a bright orange, but I can't make my camera photograph them any differently.

This being November 1st, it's time to start on the next bag lady, and so I'll put the Sundress block aside for a while. Here's Thelma.

 I love her red bobby sox and her black Mary Janes. That's where I'm headed next.

We'll be exploring Colonial Williamsburg today, and possibly we'll make our way to Yorktown as well. More on that in tomorrow's post. You can wait on tenterhooks until then.