Historic Jamestowne

Today, we went to Historic Jamestowne.  We found out that a major storm a day or so earlier had left the area without electricity.  The visitor center was running on a generator, and the Voorhees Archaearium (museum) and Glasshouse were closed.

T was a happy, albeit hot, boy!

We traipsed around in 100+ degree heat and saw lots of interesting things.  :)

Trying to stay hydrated!

Jamestown was founded in 1607 and became the first permanent English-speaking settlement in mainland North America.

These are reconstructed foundations of some of the earliest buildings.

The James River was a lifeline.  Ships from England brought tools, seeds, cloth, food, more settlers -- and hope.  The colonists sent back timber, tobacco, pitch, potash, furs, iron ore -- and stories.

Cobblestone and brick foundations supported the framed church of 1617, the first church on this site and Jamestown's third church.

The Old Tower was a part of the first all-brick church which was begun in 1639.

The present Memorial Church was built in 1907 and rests on the foundations of that first all-brick church.

Captain John Smith was the Governor of Virginia in 1608.

Pocahontas, daughter of Indian Chief Powhatan, was a friend of the earliest struggling English colonists.

In April 1614, Pocahontas married John Rolfe, a settler in Virginia.  She visited England with her husband and infant son in 1616, and she died there in March 1617 at the age of 22.

This is the earliest known burial ground of the English in America...settlers, the founders of this nation, who died at Jamestown during the first perilous years of the colony.

This monument was erected in 1907 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement.