Norfolk, Virginia, and Historic Jamestown Rediscovery

Thank you to all who read my prior blog post about the wildfire that was in our community and expressed concern for the residents and firefighters. Thankfully, due to the extraordinary diligence and heroism of many local firefighter units, Specialty Wildfire"Hot Shot" crews, aerial support with helicopter and tanker planes dumping water, and our sheriff's department maintaining security in evacuated areas and keeping us informed with daily press conferences, the wildfire was brought under full containment by August 7th.  No loss of life or loss of structures occurred. We were all extremely grateful and relieved for all the efforts to keep us safe!

I'm continuing today on my blog to show another stop at our June Princess Cruise when we traveled from New York along the East Coast and back to New York.  We visited Peggy's Cove in Halifax, Nova Scotia, The John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, and our third stop was Norfolk, Virginia!

Norfolk, Virginia is home to the Naval Station Norfolk-- the world’s largest naval base!  There are many sites and museums dedicated to honoring the US military in the Norfork area, including the Nauticus and the USS Wisconsin. The USS Wisconsin is a battleship that participated in WWII, the Korean War, and the Gulf War.

We were fortunate to see many naval ships at the docks of the Naval Station Norfork as our cruise ship sailed toward the city port. 

 We chose to take a day excursion to visit historic Jamestown, the first colonial site of British America. 

On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company settlers landed on Jamestown Island to establish an English colony 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Discovery of the exact location of the first fort indicates its site was in a secure place, where Spanish ships could not fire point blank into the fort.

Please click on the photo to enlarge it to read the informational placard.

Our tour guide told us a brief history of Jamestown and encouraged us to first visit the Native Powhatan village re-enactment area. My husband and I visited Jamestown many decades ago and we were amazed by how much has been done in the later years to tell its story! Over 25 years of exploration have established the location of the fort and principal buildings and recovered more than three million artifacts. The archaeological site of the actual settlement is located one mile from the Jamestown Rediscovery Visitors Center.

A replica of a Powhatan Village.

 

A view inside of what a Powhatan home would look like in the 17th century.

Many re-enactors demonstrated the life skills of the Powhatan natives of the 17th century.

In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. In December of that year, 104 settlers sailed from London with Company instructions to build a secure settlement, find gold, and seek a water route to the Pacific. They sailed on three ships, replicas of which we were able to board during our tour.

A re-enactor described the Jamestown settlers' voyage west,

The Jamestown settlement has a stocked defense built around it for protection.

The replica Jamestown settlement had re-enactors that demonstrated everyday life during the early years.   To date, archaeologists have excavated approximately 80% of the original 1607 triangular fort and 50% of the expanded 5-sided 1608 fort, yielding some 3 million artifacts from the settlement’s early years, increasing knowledge about the site and the people that lived there.

We watched this re-enactor show us how a 17th-century musket was fired.  You can watch a YouTube of the process I filmed at this link.

After visiting the replica villages we entered the Jamestown Rediscovery Visitor's Center Museum to look at all the interesting exhibits.

There we learned fascinating facts about John Smith, Pocahontas, John Rolfe, Chief Powhatan, the first Africans, the First General Assembly, and the names of the First Settlers.

Please click on the photo to enlarge it and read the museum's informational placards.

Please click on the photo collage to read the information about the early starvation the settlers faced and the story of Captain John Smith.

Jamestown is managed by two separate organizations, Jamestown Rediscovery (Preservation Virginia) and Colonial National Historical Park (National Park Service). Each location requires a fee to enter, so visitors should expect to buy both tickets to see the full site.

We spent two hours exploring Jamestown Rediscovery and could have spent even more time there, but we had a part two visit to our excursion which was visiting nearby Yorktown--the last battle of the American Revolutionary War.  That will be on my next post!

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