The First Settlement

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While in Williamsburg, I took a day trip to Jamestown. Jamestown is the first permanent English settlement in the United States. While there, you have two options to check things out. The first is Historic Jamestown. This is run by the National Park Service and they charge you a maintenance fee to enter. The excavations of the original fort are going on there and they have exhibits and other things to see.

The next one is Jamestown Settlement. I opted to go here. It's a museum and there's a fee included. During the winter, they have guided tours that leave once every hour, on the hour, that take you outside. Outside, they have a replica of a Powhatan village. The Powhatans are the native Indians of that area. Pocahontas was a Powhatan. There's also a replica of the Jamestown settlement, complete with guardhouse, church, office, governor's home, barracks, and other buildings. They're currently doing construction on it right now, but it's still viewable. They have people to talk to you about things like how the Powhatan made clothes and how muskets work and all of that.

They also have lifesize versions of the three ships that brought the settlers to Jamestown. They are seaworthy and they do sail them. It was really interesting walking around the decks and imagining 50 passengers down there.

There are also exhibits on everything, a video to watch, a cafeteria, and a huge gift shop. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in that sort of thing.

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