Virginia Vacation - Day 5

This was the first day of historical geekery, as we went over to Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English settlement on American soil.

I was a little confused when reading about Jamestown, as there are two main attractions. One, Jamestown Settlement, is run by the state of Virginia and is a recreation of early Jamestown on land that is near, but not part of, the original site. There's a large and well-appointed visitors center, behind which you find the recreated settlement area, which includes typical native dwellings, the fort and a work area of the town in about the 18th century, and full-sized replicas of the ships that brought the colonists to Virginia in 1607.

The other part is the actual site, which is run by the National Park Service as part of Colonial National Park. The site doesn't have any original structures, but does have some later ones as well as a good museum showcasing artifacts found during excavations. It's also cheaper than the settlement site.

We wound up doing both, and both have their advantages. The settlement recreation made it much easier to visualize colonial life, and some of the guides were quite adept at explaining life for natives and settlers alike (the younger guides were less knowledgable, though I expect that they were recently-hired college students based on some comments they made). We also got to put on some colonial armor and help hollow out a canoe, which was fun. Still, there was an air of make-believe to the place that made it a little hard for things to fully sink in.

The actual site has the advantage of being the actual site, as well as some extremely knowledgable rangers. It helps to have seen the recreation first, I think, as it allows you to overlay the visuals on to the original site. It takes away some of the fun of coming up with your own mental pictures, but at least replaces that with something reasonably accurate.

Both facilities show the benefit of the 400th anniversary of the founding, with new buildings and exhibits. Both also try to demonstrate the balance between the English settlers, the natives they found upon arriving, and the Africans who wound up in the area after escaping from the Spanish, an important part of the history but one that the settlement beats over your head a little too much, I think.

Anyway, if you ever go I'd plan on visiting both sites. No combo admission, sorry to say, but both offer combos with sites at Yorktown. More on that on Thursday.