Site of 1st colonial settlement preserved in an array of ways at Jamestown

The neighboring towns of Jamestown and Yorktown have been on my tourist destination list since I visited Colonial Williamsburg last September.

Jamestown was England's first permanent colony in the New World, and Yorktown is best-known as the place where Gen. George Washington's army launched its siege that forced British Gen. Charles Cornwallis to surrender, ending the Revolutionary War in 1781.

On our spring East Coast swing, we visited both places on May 21, but it turned out to be a very long day. In retrospect, we should have given each a separate day.

Jamestown has several attractions -- a welcome center, where we didn't spend much time; a museum housing artifacts (again, not much time there); an area displaying replica Native American and colonist villages and docked ships; and the original fort site along the James River, which has cannons, a memorial chapel, a monument to John Smith and another to Pocahontas, and several dig sites where archaeologists continue to hunt for artifacts.

The replica villages and ships feature staff dressed in colonial garb who share information about their areas with any visitors who inquire. I would occasionally listen in on portions of their information, but for the most part, I was focused on photography.

As usual, click on any image to bring up a larger, sharper version. This is particularly useful if you access the blog using a mobile device. Click on the link in this sentence to view a full gallery of the images I made from my visit to Jamestown.

Photo geek stuff: I shot all of my photos with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC lens equipped with a B+W polarizing filter. I bracketed all compositions for three exposures to allow for melding in high-dynamic range (HDR) software in post-processing. Many of the images in this post were treated that way. 

Flags of all the U.S. states fly along Quadricentennial Plaza, a landscaped walkway leading to a found outside the welcome center.

 Above: Visitors heading toward the welcome center entrance.

Above: I've gotten into the habit of always looking up. When I did it inside the welcome center, this is what I saw.

My first view of the Native American village (above) and a look inside one of the rounded huts (below).

A staffer discusses chores involving the camp fire (above) while two re-enactors, experiencing a break in the visitor stream, catch up on conversation (below).  

Above: A closeup of a totem in the replica Native American village.

Above and below: Two of the structures in the replica village, where I spied my first look at a sail (above) from one of the ships docked along the James River beyond the town fence.

Re-enactors doing their thing -- helping a young girl wash clothes the colonists' way (above) and spinning a yarn about the blacksmith (below).

Above: A re-enactor entertains a modest crowd of visitors (above). A closeup of the skull appears below.

Above: A wall "decoration" inside one of the structures in the replica town.

Above and below: Two views of the three ships moored near the original fort on the James River. 

Above and next seven below: Pictures taken on the three ships.  

Above: A different view of a ship's bow.

Above: Prominent in view from the main access to the original fort site is the chapel structure (left). Next four photos below were taken elsewhere on the original fort site.

The monument to John Smith (above) faces the river and is quite tall. A closeup of the front appears in the first photo below. The monument juxtaposed with the chapel in the background appears in the second photo below. 

Above and below: Separate dig sites on the original fort site.

Inside the chapel structure (above), where the coat of arms (below) hangs on one of the walls. 

Above: The monument to Pocahontas. 

Next up: Yorktown, Va.

Previous posts in this East Coast swing series:

James Madison's Montpelier

George Washington's Mount Vernon

Barboursville Vineyards, Barboursville, Va.

Alexandria, Va.

Berkeley Plantation, Charles City, Va.

Virginia Capitol at Richmond, Va.