Jamestown Blogging

I just flew in from Virginia and boy are my arms tired!

No, I won't stop using that one.

I had a business side trip to Norfolk and my meetings there ended around 1PM. Once finished, I had to make the trek back up to Alexandria. I decided to stop by Jamestown on the way back as my daughter had studied it in third grade social studies last year.

Jamestown was an economic venture by some English adventurer / entrepreneurs started in 1607. Starved for certain raw materials, these gentlemen received dispensation from the king to take a party to America and start a colony that would harvest these materials and ship them back to England. The whole thing was a huge gamble. The history site linked above will give the background and facts. Here I will give observations.

When I studied the subject with my daughter, I just couldn't figure out how they managed to do so badly while surroundedd by so many natural resources.

The shore of the James River right at the settlement. Timber and fish were readily available.
The colonists decided early on to rely on trading with the Indians for food rather than farm extenisvely at the settlement. It was felt that farming would make the colony appear too permanent and would invite Indian attacks. Fortunately, when they arrived, the local Indians were fighting with the neighboring tribe who had been their source of copper goods and were willing to barter food for copper.

The plan was to focus on the high value items like tobacco (which must have required some farming), timber and metals. That worked out well until they got into a dispute with the Indians who essentially besieged the settlement over the winter of 1609. Cut off from food supplies and unable to leave their fort, they starved to death in huge numbers.

They also suffered from a lack of fresh water. That stunned me. It turns out that the James River is brackish (has a high salt content) at the settlement and was not a reliable source of drinking water. When they dug wells, they had to dig them to just the right depth to avoid their own waste in the water table and the brackish water from the river. I had always assumed that the James River was fresh and that wasn't a problem. That close to the Atlantic, enough salt is present to make the water undrinkable.

The whole thing was a high-wire act from beginning to end. If the Indians cooperated and if they could rely on supply and trade ships from England and if the Spanish didn't find them and if they didn't lose too many of one any particular profession to disease and if the weather wasn't too severe, then they might make a great deal of money.

The stars never quite aligned for the original colonists. Read more about it at the history site linked above.

The park itself was a big disappointment. It is being extensively renovated for the 400th anniversary of the founding in 2007. There is construction going on all over the place and photo opportunities are minimal. The park entrance fee is still the same despite the temporarily poor quality of the exhibit. I was able to get photos of a recreation of the fort walls that illustrated something I hadn't thought of before.

A replica of the walls used for the original fort.
Lacking nails, they augured holes in the wood and used wooden stakes as nails. As the wood decomposed over time, the walls must have become more and more flimsy.
I wish I had been able to take more photos, but everything else was marred by construction debris. I was also disappointed in the museum attached to the park. They did not allow photography. Oh well. The weather was wonderful and I'd still recommend seeing the place. Just wait until 2007 or later so the construction is finished when you go.

By the way, if I've erred in my analysis, please let me know in the comments section.