This image of homes that were build by the first English to settle in Jamestowne was brought to you by Rustic Replicas. The guy who writes the blog for this company states:

Early English settlers in Virginia built a fortified settlement called Jamestown. The homes they constructed were not log cabins. Instead, they built small homes of massive, square-cut timbers that were mortised and pegged. The spaces between the timbers were filled with interwoven sticks (called waddle). The waddle was covered (or daubed) with mud. Even the chimney was built in this manner. The hearth was about five feet high so you could walk into the fireplace and look straight up the chimney. The floors were bare earth. There were window openings but often they were covered only by a shutter. As the original settlement was built on an island in the James river, the mosquitoes were plentiful and lethal. The little homes had thatched roofs made of reeds and/or grasses that grew in abundance in the swampy areas around the fort.

Can you imagine how large the trees must have been to cut a large timber such as the ones that built these homes?

While Rustic Replicas doesn’t offer this home as a miniature kit, they offer other kits for you to explore, mainly log cabins. Visit the site to learn more (NOTE: I haven’t ordered any products from this company so I can’t vouch for their quality).

Posted by river queen at 12:49 AM PST

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Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, will travel to the United States in May to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Jamestown, Va., White House officials said Wednesday.

The queen mentioned her plans Wednesday during her annual address to the opening of Parliament. The state visit will commemorate the first permanent English settlement in the Colonies, 13 years before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts. In a statement, President Bush praised an “extraordinary friendship that is sustained by deep historical and cultural ties.”

No dates were announced. In 1957, on her first state visit to the U.S., the queen took part in Jamestown’s 350th anniversary.

Posted by river queen at 1:57 AM PST

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William M. Kelso has been the chief archaeologist of the Jamestown Rediscovery project from the beginning. His book, Jamestown, the Buried Truth, is a lucid and enthralling history of the excavations and of the reinterpretation of the events of the first few years of the Virginia colony. So clear and informative is the text that the volume is one of the best books ever on how students of the past, whether archaeologists or other kinds of historians, do their work. Brent Tarter, Richmond Times Dispatch.

Once thought to have been washed away by the James River, James Fort still retains much of its structure, including palisade walls, bulwarks, interior buildings, a well, a warehouse, and several pits, and more than 500,000 objects have been cataloged, half dating to the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James. Artifacts especially reflective of life at James Fort include an ivory compass, Cabasset helmets and breastplates, glass and copper beads and ornaments, ceramics, tools, religious icons, a pewter flagon, and personal items. Dr. Kelso and his team of archaeologists have discovered the lost burial of one of Jamestown’s early leaders, presumed to be Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, and the remains of several other early settlers, including a young man who died of a musket ball wound. In addition, they’ve uncovered and analyzed the remains of the foundations of Jamestown’s massive capitol building.

Refuting the now decades-old stereotype that attributed the high mortality rate of the Jamestown settlers to their laziness and ineptitude, Jamestown, the Buried Truth produces a vivid picture of the settlement that is far more complex, incorporating the most recent archaeology to give Jamestown its rightful place in history and thus contributing to a broader understanding of the transatlantic world.

Posted by river queen at 3:41 AM PST

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Richmond, Virginia, also known as The River City, is an independent city located in what is known as Central Virginia Piedmont region. It straddles the fall line of the James River, which marks the meeting lines for the eastern border of Virginia’s Piedmont and western border of its Coastal region. Downtown Richmond is considered the heart of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and it spreads along the northern side of a bend in the James River. Greater Richmond has always been one of Virginia’s commercial hubs. Instead of using the river for transportation, however, the interstate and federal highways systems provide transportation throughout the city.

Interstate I-64 connects Virginia’s capital with the Blue Ridge, Charlottesville, and the coast, while I-95 slices the city from north to south as it travels from Washington, DC to North Carolina. I-85 is an alternate routh south, and I-295 encircles Richmond and reaches down to Petersburg. Beyond the interstates, federal highways such as U.S. highways 15, 60, and 522 often offer more direct and scenic drives between major Piedmont cities. U.S. 29 is the quickest route between Charlottesville and Washington, DC via I-66. Smaller state roads like Rt. 20, Rt. 231, and Rt. 40 meander accross the piedmont and up into the Blue Ridge foothills to the west. Richmond is also the terminus for U.S. highways 250 and 33. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by river queen at 3:16 PM PST

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