JAMESTOWN, myeh

JUNE 6, 2012        Back again on the scoot to Williamsburg to catch the free shuttlebus to Jamestown.  When we had the scoot repaired in Annapolis, we discovered that the front tire was badly cupped, so we didn’t want to make any longer trips on it.  Besides, the shuttle was convenient and we wouldn’t have to worry about staying dry.  There actually are two Jamestowns to see:  Historic Jamestown, with archeological digs and stuff, and a theme park place.  The first was sorta interesting, the second, not so. 

We hit the historical site first, and encountered the most over-the-top ranger I think we’ve ever met.  Everything he said was mouthed in vox dramaticus, accompanied by exaggerated hand gestures.  He was something to watch, but we quickly tired of his presentation, and wandered off.

The grounds are not the place of drama, consisting mostly of grassy fields interrupted now and then by excavated foundations, or casts of old post-holes from the bulwarks.

Exciting stuff, eh?  It does have historical interest, of course, being the site of the first permanent English colony, established in 1607.  The only surviving 17ty century structure is the 1690’s tower of the brick church.  The rest is all foundations or re-creations.  They are still beetling away at the excavations, and have uncovered the site of the 1608 edition of the four churches that stood here.  It’s mostly a bunch of sandbags outlining the perimeter, but it is interesting because this was the site of the marriage of Pocahontas and the planter, John Rolfe, in April of 1614.

 

There was a pretty good little archaeological museum on site, called the “Archaearium.”  A fish tank of artifacts?  Here they mercifully display only some of the one million plus items they’ve unearthed.  Also thankfully, they had some decent sandwiches in the cafeteria.  Good thing, cause there wasn’t any restaurant within miles.

After lunch, we boarded the shuttle bus for the trip over to the Jamestown Settlement, which is a Williamsburg-like “living history museum,” but aimed a little lower on the entertainment scale.  While the ship replicas were interesting,

the rest of the displays and exhibitions were more on the tone of Knott’s Berry Farm.  There were dwellings to enter, dugout canoes being burn-formed, anvils pounded, and I honest-to-god don’t know what the kid is doing with the fire.

All in all, we were less than thrilled, and cut out early to go back for the late afternoon at Williamsburg (covered in the previous post).  Although we hauled our rain gear around with us all day, we saw nary a drop.