As part of my short trip to the Williamsburg area, I swung by the Jamestown Virginia Museum and Park. One of my buddies had never been and I had not been there for a long time ago. With that, we decided to take part of a day and head over.
There are actually three different ones in the same general area. First, there is the state park and museum. This has a main museum and three outside areas that include a fort, Indian encampment and mock ups of the original three ships that the original colonists arrived in. Then there is the federal park that has the ruins from the original settlement. Next to that is a private park that has a mock up of the original fort and a museum that includes excavated artifacts.
We got at the museum around ten in the morning and swung by the cafeteria for a quick breakfast. In retrospect, that was probably not the best choice! If you are planning a full day, you are better served having something more substantial before you get to the park. However, if you just want a light snack, the cafe works fine (we ended up with some breakfast muffins).
The main museum itself is quite large and has a very nice selection of artifacts. These are interspersed with multiple short films, vignettes and narratives. The museum covers the whole founding period and takes the visitor to the transfer of the capital to Williamsburg.
Once you finish going to the museum, you walk to a mock up Indian encampment with huts and sundries. There are a few folks in garb there to give answers and contents of what an actual encampment was like. You then continued farther and get to the river and see three ships along the dock. Each one is a rebuild of the three original ships that carried colonists to the new world. It is quite amazing when you see how small these ships were and the crew and passengers spend five and a half months on them! Once you finish touring on the ships, you go to a mock up of the Jamestown fort.
After we finished with the state museum, we got into the car and drove down the street to the national and private park (I did not realize it was two parks until we were buying tickets). We went through the federal museum, which was much smaller than the state one, but still nice. We then walked through a wetland area to the main park area. This area includes a lot of descriptive placards and ruins. With on exception, the ruins are just the lowest level of various brick buildings (excavated basements). The pathway takes you around and you arrive at the private section of the park.
You enter the next park and immediately enter a recreation of the original triangular palisade fort. There is the main church and different excavation areas. Within this park area, there was nice cafe that we stopped at to have lunch. We had some very tasty sandwiches and went back to touring.
We finished up by going to the private museum. This was build over the original statehouse ruins and earlier cemetery. This area was fully excavated and the contents of the excavation here, around the fort and even the individual wells were on display in the museum. It is all presented well and ends with the required gift shop!
We finished up our tour and walked back to the entrance, just in time for the closing of the park. We had intended to spend about half a day, but it turned out we used the whole day! Short of some sore feet, it was a great day. If you are interested in American history and its earliest days, these parks and museums are a must see.
- Manteuffel
Looks like a very nice museum!