Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 215 | Page 34

It is hard to fathom any road in the United States that can connect so much colonial history together as the Colonial Parkway in Virginia. Grade school textbooks are brought to
life all along an especially scenic and historic byway that connects Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Virginia’s license plates remind us that 2007 is the
400th anniversary of Fort Jamestown — better known
as Jamestown. The remnants of the fort built in 1607
still stand, much to the surprise and exaltation of the
archeologists digging up the shards of pottery, the rusty
weapons, jewelry, clothing, shoes and even the bodies of
the early settlers.
In 1994, William Kelso rediscovered Jamestown,
which was thought to be lost to the waters of the everchanging James River. A specialist in colonial American
archaeology, Kelso disagreed with the fort-in-the-river
crowd and correctly assumed that the fort was more inland — but not by much — next to the remains of a
brick church tower built in 1690. After about an hour of
digging, Kelso and his history making shovel unearthed
fragments of early 17th century ceramics, proving to the
skeptics that Fort James was on land and not covered
with water, and that with time he would be able to reconstruct the fort. Very similar to the analogy of purchasing a frame, radiator cap and boxes of automobile
bits and proclaiming that there is a car in those boxes
somewhere, Kelso just needed some time to sort everything out.
By using the discoloration in the soil where posts
and logs once stood, it took Kelso about 10 years to map
out the triangular shape of the fort, along with the foun-

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dations of buildings, wells containing layer upon
layer of some of the million artifacts discovered, and
a burial ground. The burial grounds are significant,
as the first settlers were ill-prepared for the glorious
adventure on which they had embarked.
Nearly three-quarters of the settlers perished
within a few years of trying to establish the settlement. After figuring out that settlers were dying
from typhoid, dysentery and salt poisoning after
drinking from the James River, a well was dug to
make fresh water available. This quenched the thirst
of the settlers, but filling empty stomachs proved
more difficult.
During this time, the Chesapeake River was enduring what would become a seven-year drought,
and trying to grow anything to eat became a difficult challenge. Trying to barter with the local Indians proved fruitless. The natives figured out that
the settlers were not too smart, since they had tried
to establish a colony in an area where there was no
food or water. They thought that if they refused to
trade for food, the settlers would starve and head for
home, leaving the natives in peace again.
The winter of 1609 was a difficult one for the
settlers and has become known to historians as “the
starving time.” During this winter, the colonists ate
WORDS & PHOTOS TED GLOVER