Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: Jamestown/ Yorktown, Birthplaces of America

On our trip to the Outer Banks, we stopped at two very historic sites. Jamestown is the site of the first permanent English colony in America. Yorktown was the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

We left home at 3 pm on Monday and drove until 1 am. This put us at the Welcome Center just south of Fredericksburg, VA. We slept a few hours in the car and proceeded to Jamestown for the 9 am opening.

Before I go further, yes I know that native people lived here before white settlers came. Capt. John Smith did not discover Virginia, he placed a white settlement there. I understand history. I am not going to ignore it nor am I going to embellish it. I'm just going to write about what I saw.

The area is owned by the National Park service. Jamestown is in conjunction with Yorktown is known as the Colonial National Historic Park. This is an important name recognition because next door to the Jamestown Historic site is a place called Jamestown Settlement. However, Jamestown Settlement is not where the actual settlement was, it is a living history museum like Plimouth Plantation or Old Sturbridge Village. It took me a half hour online to distinguish the two places. We went to where the actual settlement was, where they built a fort and houses. We did not go to "Jamestown Settlement" the living history museum where people dressed up. Confusing, Yes!

If anyone wants to take a trip to eastern VA there is a lot more to do than the two historic sites. Colonial Williamsburg which is a huge living history museum/park is in this historic triangle. Busch Gardens is right down the road. You pass Kings Dominion on the way to eastern VA. Virginia Beach is an hour away. And one could easily go to Civil War Battlefields. In short, you couldn't do all the tourist attractions in the area in one family vacation. Most of that commercial stuff meant nothing to me, so we did the day at Jamestown/ Yorktown on our way to the Outer Banks. These two places were on my bucket list and also, they broke up the long ride to North Carolina.

If you can click on this sign to make it big enough to read
do so. John Smith lived a crazy life.

Okay, Jamestown. Captain John Smith and three ships full of settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607. Their goal was to find ways to make money for the people that financed the voyage back home. Like the Puritans, they had a rough start. There was a lot of death the first couple of years. The site is where they built a fort and lived. The first stop is the Visitor Center. There is a short film about the history and a few artifacts.

Then you walk across a long boardwalk over a swamp to the site

Pocahontas

There is a large monument at the end of the boardwalk. To the right is where the original colony was. To the left is an expansion outside the original fort a few years later.

There are active excavations at the site where archeologists are finding artifacts as I write this. They have found thousands of things from tobacco pipes, bones, to guns and ammo. Much of the cooler stuff is in a museum on the grounds. There are wooden stakes where the fort used to be and a very old brick building inside. There is also a small cemetery plot where some of the unfortunate are buried.

Once we looked over all of the original site we walked to the museum. The museum is excellent. It had so many artifacts from the original colonists. There are pieces of guns, money, and even a full size complete skeleton. I really couldn't have asked for more. I was in awe looking at actual history from four hundred years ago. After we toured the museum we went back to our car and drove to Yorktown as we will also do here.

Washington's tent

Yorktown

The siege at Yorktown lasted from Sept 28- Oct 19 1781. The British under Cornwallis were camped on a peninsular waiting for supplies from England. When Washington heard about this, he sent his troops from New York down to Virginia. The French beat off the English Navy in Chesapeake Bay. Because of this, the French blockaded the bay and Cornwallis had no way of getting supplies. When Washington and his men (along with French troops and militia) arrived they outnumbered the Brits 20,000-9000. Cornwallis was trapped. On Oct 19 they surrendered to Washington. Cornwallis was so embarrassed he made a subordinate surrender his sword. Two years later, the Treaty of Paris was signed and the United States was free.

We ate lunch at a picnic table at the parking lot before going into the Visitor Center. Once inside we watched a film about the battle. Like Jamestown, there were some artifacts. Two tents that Washington used were on display along with a canon. We got a map of the battlefield and hit the road.

This British Redoubt that had to be captured by the
American's.

There is a battle road that goes through the battlefield. It stops at all of the major sites. You can read about what happened at each location, many times without getting out of your car. It didn't take u long at all to go through the area. It was pretty straight forward. The English were on one side of the earthworks. There was a no mans land of a hundred yards and then the American line of breastworks on the other side.

After we toured the battlefield I went back inside and looked Washington's tent one more time. After that we headed to our campground at Newport News Park which was just a few minutes away.

You can easily do both the Jamestown site and the Yorktown Battlefield in the same day. I was worried that time wouldn't be our friend but we had plenty of it. These two areas are run by the National Park Service. Combined they cost $25. The pass is good for a week which really didn't do us any good. More photos below.