Adventures at Jamestown

My mom and I made a day trip up to Yorktown and Jamestown once it was (finally!) the weekend and I no longer had school! I had been to Yorktown with P before so didn’t take many pictures (you can see those here), but Jamestown was new to me. We were originally planning on going to Williamsburg too, but we just ran out of time. That leaves something for the next trip though!

If I had to choose one of the three historical sites to see, I would choose Jamestown handsdown. It is just SO COOL. We were originally planning on just walking around a bit but decided to do the tour, which turned out to be very interesting and we stayed for the entirety of that even though the 45 minute tour turned into an hour and a half. That’s how interesting it was!

I could probably spend an hour writing about everything we learned, but to keep it exciting for those of my readers who might want to make a trip up to Jamestown, I’ll make a short list. And hopefully I get all of this information right! 🙂

1. Until 1994, the common belief was that the Jamestown settlement was in what is now the river. One guy had a different idea though, got approved to do a 10-year dig, and ended up supporting his theory that the fort was actually built on what is now still land. (And that 10-year dig is still going on today, 22 years later!)
2. It is an active archaeological site, so every day (that there is good weather) people are working on uncovering more artifacts and piecing together Jamestown’s history. We didn’t see any archaeologists because of the weather, but they are definitely there for a lot of the year!
3. Some of the top 10 most important discoveries for multiple years have been found at Jamestown.
4. Because of #1-3, every time you visit Jamestown you will learn something different and hear about the most up-to-date findings! You can also check out their Facebook page where they keep people updated on what they’re finding.

It was absolutely amazing to be where people settled in America in the very early 1600s. It’s crazy how much history we are close to, living in Virginia! And for a history geek like myself, that’s pretty exciting. 😉

xoxo