JAMESTOWN TRAVEL NOTES

WHERE TO RELIVE The STORY

Many readers have reported that visiting the places in Love and Hate in Jamestown, either before or after reading the book, added to their enjoyment. These settings include not only Jamestown itself, but also other places in Virginia, England, and Bermuda.

Jamestown

The site of the Jamestown colony is now administered by the National Park Service under the name Historic Jamestowne. An intensive archeological effort has revealed much about the layout of the colony. Park rangers and interpreters provide tours. (No original structures are still standing.) See the National Park Service's web site.

Down the road at Jamestown Settlement, an enjoyable historical park operated by the state of Virginia, visitors can enter reproductions of the colonists' fort and buildings and a Powhatan village. Visitors can also board replicas of the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, the ships of the first Jamestown voyage. See the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation's site.

Both Historic Jamestowne and Jamestown Settlement are a twenty-minute drive from Colonial Williamsburg via the Colonial Parkway or Va. Route 31 (Jamestown Road).

The first landing site

There is a park and memorial at the site of the first landing of the Virginia Company colonists. They landed at Cape Henry, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, on April 26, 1607, before continuing their explorations and finally selecting the site of Jamestown up the James River. Visitors' information is available from the National Park Service. An adjacent state park offers beaches, camping, and hiking -- see First Landing State Park. Both sites are at the northern edge of present-day Virginia Beach.

Henricus

Chesterfield County, Virginia, offers a historical park at the site of Henricus, the satellite colony founded in 1611 where Pocahontas was held captive and where she ultimately converted to Christianity. For information, see The Citie of Henricus.

The departure site

Near London, visitors can see the approximate departure point of the three ships of the original Jamestown voyage from the docks at Blackwall. A monument more or less marking the spot is located on a waterfront plaza in a large residential complex called Virginia Quay. The complex is near the East India station of the Docklands Light Railway, which is the simplest way to reach it from London. (View a local map.) Across the Thames, one can see the Greenwich Millennium Dome.

Bermuda

Artifacts recovered from the 1609 wreck of the Sea Venture can be viewed at the National Museum of Bermuda.