Before we went to the church tower we saw a beautiful statue of Pocahontas. Although she was purported to have married John Smith this was not true. She did intervene with her father, Chief Powhatan, to spare John Smith's life, but she was actually married to another Englishman by the name of John Rolfe. She went back to England with him and became a celebrity in her own right and was received at the English court. She died, in 1617 at the age of 22, before she was able to return to her native America and her beloved son, Thomas.
Near the Church tower was an archeological dig that they were conducting. It was being conducted inside a Quonset-Hut type structure so that their finds were not exposed to the elements. They had been able to figure out where the original fort was and found out that, unfortunately, part of the fort had been eroded by the sea. However, part of the foundation had been buried by sand and they were able to recover a great deal of what was there.
As we left the dig site and went toward the Dale House Archaeological Laboratory, we passed the Statue of Captain John Smith, who was the president of the Virginia Council in 1608-1609. He was the same John Smith whose name was linked with Pocahontas.
Continuing on down the path we came to the Laboratory. In here we saw some of the artifacts uncovered during the recent APVA Jamestown Rediscovery excavations of the 1607 James Fort. One of the displays was the head of a male that was recreated from a skull found on site.
As we proceeded back to the visitors center, we passed the Memorial Cross which marks some 300 shallow graves hastily dug by the settlers during the bleak winter of 1609-1610, a period they called the "starving time." Next to Memorial Cross were the foundations of the Third and Fourth Statehouses, each of which served as seat of the colonists' government in the late 17th century. The Fourth Statehouse accidentally burned in the fall of 1698, resulting in the General Assembly relocating the capital to nearby Williamsburg. We then returned to Monument Terrace in front of the visitors center. We could have proceeded to the New Towne Site at this point for another tour, however we decided to take a drive around the rest of the island. You can purchase an audio tape for this tour if you so choose. We just decided to drive around and see the natural beauty of the woods. Every so often there would be a pull-off area and there would be a large picture with a plaque describing different aspects of colonial life on the island.
As we drove back to where we were staying in Williamsburg, I thought about many of the things I had learned this day. Myths that were cleared up (Pocahontas and John Smith), and of the hardships that our forefathers had to bear for our country to evolve into the wonderful nation with the freedoms that we all enjoy today, and all too often take for granted. If you get in the Williamsburg area, I heartily recommend a side trip to Jamestown to see where the whole thing actually got started.

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Good Luck! Have Fun! and Stay Safe!

Laura