A 399th Anniversary

April 5th marked the 399th anniversary of the wedding of Pocahontas to John Rolfe; an important date for the couple who would become the parents of the American tobacco industry and economic saviors of Jamestown.

They were married at the settlement's church built in 1608, evidence of which was found by Jamestown Rediscovery in 2010, and named among that year's top ten discoveries by the Archaeological Institute of America.

The Rolfes were likely able to have engaged her fellow tribes- members to teach the settlers the practice of cultivation and harvesting of the tobacco plants, using the hybrid from his purloined sweet Caribbean variety and the strong local leaf. Two years later, they would sail for London to demonstrate the first batch of their new product that would go on to sweep England, and generate the revenues that would sustain the colony to prove its mettle as the harbinger of Plymouth and the British Empire.

New: Jamestown Rediscovery Society

The Jamestown Rediscovery archeological site should be important to all of us who are Society members and those interested in it. The past two decades’ remarkable discoveries of James Fort, the million-plus artifacts left by our ancestors and evidence of the 1608 church where Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married are important contributions to the historical knowledge of our nation’s origins. In my view, it is our important archeological dig. Now, JR’s newsletter tells us, “There is a new way for people to maintain closer ties with Historic Jamestowne. There will be unique opportunities to learn about the daily discoveries at the original 1607 site of James Fort. Under the auspices of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Jamestown Rediscovery Society was recently formed, and membership is open to all interested in further supporting this important site--the first permanent English colony in North America.” Please go to http://historicjamestowne.org/newsletter/mar13/jamestown_rediscovery_society_launch.php to learn more, how to become a charter member and help assure that this valuable work will continue.   

Jamestowne Society on Facebook

Some Jamestowne Society members are gently pushing it into the 20th, if not the 21st, century.

We have been watching the recent growth of a Jamestowne Society Facebook page, and it is worth a look. It is a needed and probably valuable tool to help make younger potential applicants aware of it, and give it a much-needed modern flavor.

According to Susan Rager, the Society's webmaster, "...this is not an official Jamestowne Society page, but rather was started and is maintained by a dedicated [Society] member."

However, she approves and frequently posts to it. It is worth a look back over the past few months' posts to see queries about the Society, visits to Historic Jamestown and success in joining.

Climate Change Portends Loss of Historic Jamestown

The national press has picked up the Richmond Times-Dispatch piece by Rex Springston that warns of the potentially catastrophic effects of ocean level rise and climate change for Historic Jamestown. We had previously posted similar warnings earlier: on September 19, 2010 (“What’s Jamestown’s Future?”) and June 24, 2102 (“A Major Climate Threat to Historic Jamestown’s Future”), which included links to an article in USA Today, then reporting on research by the Natural Resource Defense Council and Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.

Based on interviews with scientists interpreting the latest climate change data and officials from the National Park Service, Preservation Virginia and local groups, Springston says, "For thousands of years, Virginia’s coastal waters went up about a foot a century — partly because of a natural rise in global sea level and partly because the state’s coastal lands are sinking, scientists say.

"But at least partly because of global warming, waters are rising now at about a 2-feet-a-century clip — double the historical rate — and experts expect the rate to increase even more in the coming decades.

"If scientists’ projections hold, sea levels in southeastern Virginia — and the water level around Jamestown Island — would go up about 2 feet by 2050 and about 5 feet by 2100."

As our nation's most important archaeological site, where evidence of our national origins are daily being discovered, we are facing a disaster of immense historical proportions if no or late action is taken to protect it.

The National Park Service and Preservation Virginia reportedly are beginning to investigate ways to mitigate the prospect of devastation of Historic Jamestown.

URGENT: Financing Jamestown Rediscovery

2014 will mark two major anniversaries at Historic Jamestown: the 400^th of the wedding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe and the 20^th of Bill Kelso’s first turn of his spade for Jamestown Rediscovery, which led to his internationally recognized and major new discoveries about the first permanent English settlement in the New World. The two decades since have seen historians gain an extraordinary, new and more informed perspective on our nation’s earliest history. These discoveries have led to an unparalleled education program as well

The commemoration of that historic wedding could not be taking place without that turn of dirt. The intertwining of these events helps us understand the need for permanent support to continue Bill’s invaluable work at Historic Jamestown. We have a critical and immediate opportunity to meet that need, by giving endorsement and support for a new entry fee structure at Historic Jamestown.

Jamestown Rediscovery’s great successes have been achieved with a succession of tenuous funding sources. It was begun with Bill’s own underwriting efforts to overcome skepticism among the site’s owners that the vestiges of James Fort remained and had not been washed into the James River, as universally presumed among almost all archaeologists of the time. The results since then have been nothing less than spectacular for a better understanding of early American history.

That precarious state of financing remains today. Preservation Virginia, which owns the site where Jamestown Rediscovery is making its discoveries, suffers from shrinking resources, as do most similar organizations. At the same time, the amazing archaeological results of these past two decades have established that there is a permanent need for continuing and expanding research. Recently, Preservation Virginia has also enlisted the managerial and logistical skills of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to help assure long-term continuity for Jamestown Rediscovery’s team and projects.

After its study of the resources and needs, the National Park Service, the other owner of Historic Jamestown, is proposing an increase inentrance fees that would directly benefit and aid the sustenance for Jamestown Rediscovery. It is critical to Jamestown Rediscovery’s future to understand these proposed fee changes and offer support for them, at three hearings NPS has scheduled for February 14, 15 and 16 in the vicinity of Yorktown, Williamsburg and Jamestown.

Comments on the proposed fee structure will also be accepted in writing through February 28, 2013.

Comments should be submitted to P. Daniel Smith, Superintendent, Colonial National Historical Park, P.O. Box 210, Yorktown, VA 23690. Comments addressed to the Superintendent will also be accepted via e-mail at hjadmin@preservationvirginia.org.

Developing New Perspectives at Historic Jamestown

The archaeologists at Jamestown Rediscovery are developing new tools that should be interesting and helpful for the bell tower restoration and prepping for the Pocahontas/Rolfe quadrennial wedding commemoration.

America’s Earliest Heritage Could Be Zapped!

Can you imagine putting power plant on Plymouth Rock?

Something similar is being proposed for Virginia’s James River where Jamestown was founded in 1607. Dominion Virginia Power Company is planning to erect 16 steel Erector-set style transmission towers, four of which will be thirty-stories tall (higher than most downtown office buildings) that would be seen from the recently discovered site of the church where Pocahontas was married in 1614.

These views are critical to preserve Historic Jamestown’s educational functions and value, and its ambiance as a tourist destination. The power line's path particularly affects Carter’s Grove, a unique national treasure and extraordinary example of our pre-Revolutionary colonial history.

Local citizens have formed Save the James to oppose the project.

A public hearing will be held on October 24.

Learn here what you can do, including attending the upcoming public hearings.

Above all, please help demonstrate national support for the opposition to this project and  sign the petition.