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Jamestown Settlement Review

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• Historic Jamestowne

Jamestown Settlement

Fodor's Review:

Adjacent to but distinct from Historic Jamestowne is a mainland living-history museum called Jamestown Settlement. The site marries 40,000 square feet of indoor facilities (completed in 2006) with outdoor replicas of the early James Fort, the three ships that brought the founding colonists from England, and a Powhatan Indian village. The handsome new Tudor-style Great Hall borders extensive galleries arranged by decades from 1607 to 1699, when the capital was moved to Williamsburg, and leads to a 250-seat theater where the introductory film 1607: A Nation Takes Root is shown. Within James Fort, interpreters in costume cook, forge metal, and describe what life was like living under thatch roofs and between walls of wattle and daub (stick framework covered with mud plaster). In the Powhatan Indian Village you can enter a yehakin (house) and see buckskin-costumed interpreters cultivate a garden and make tools. At the pier are full-scale reproductions of the ships in which the settlers arrived: Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan Constant. The new Godspeed, commissioned in 2006, sails to commemorative events along the East Coast; all the vessels are seaworthy. You may climb aboard the Susan Constant and find out more from the sailor-interpreters. Indoor exhibits examine the lives of the Powhatans and their English-born neighbors, their interaction, and world conditions that encouraged colonization. A riverfront discovery area that opened in 2004 provides information about 17th-century water travel, commerce, and cultural exchange, reflecting Powhatan Indian, European, and African traditions. Dugout-canoe making takes place in this area. Spring and fall bring lots of school groups, so it's best to arrive after 2 PM.

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