Our Trip to Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown

We left Maine the morning of October 28 and began our journey south towards Williamsburg, Virginia with an overnight stay in Wilmington, Delaware. We arrived to Williamsburg the afternoon of the 29th and immediately headed for the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center. Our plan was to gather information for our next four days of sightseeing. We were presently surprised by the short, scenic walk from the visitor center into Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg

I didn’t know that Colonial Williamsburg is an historic city within a city. It is basically a living-history museum located in the historic district of Williamsburg. It has more than 301 acres of restored or re-created buildings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction. You have to purchase a ticket to enter the buildings. Since it was late in the day, Dale and I just walked around for free.

Yorktown Battlefield

On Saturday we headed to the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center to gather information and to begin the driving tour of the battlefield. The National Park Service App is so good! We have used it at several national parks and used it for this tour as well. It took two days to really take in all that we saw.

The Siege of Yorktown is where the British Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to Gen. George Washington. It was the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War. I was surprised at how important the Frensh were to our victory. See this clip from the movie “The Patriot” for a refresher. Haha!

Jamestown Settlement

On Monday we visited Jamestown. Founded in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. However, disease, famine, and sporadic attacks from the neighboring Powhatan Indians took a tremendous toll on the population of the settlement and during the winter of 1609-1610, which is known as the “starving time”, about 300 settlers dwindled to only 60. We saw a skeleton in the museum that bore evidence of cannibalism. I can only imagine how desperate they must have been.

The settlement grew and experienced some years of peace and prosperity. In 1614 Pocahontas married tobacco grower John Rolfe in the settlement’s church. The church was also used as the location of the first representative assembly in English North America. The General Assembly met “to establish one equal and uniform government over all Virginia” and provide “just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there inhabiting.”

There are archeological digs still taking place at the site. It was really a good visit.

Colonial Parkway

Colonial Parkway is a 23-mile scenic parkway linking the three points of Virginia’s Historic Triangle, Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. It is part of the National Park Service’s Colonial National Historical Park. It was a beautiful drive. It reminded us of being on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it may have been even more beautiful, but no mountain views.