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Subject: [ROOTS-L] Jamestowne history and today
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:17:39 EDT

In a message dated 8/23/2009 02:28:53 Eastern Standard Time,
writes:

A former Newport News/ Hampton Roads person here. Virginia has such a huge
historical stamp in history that to discuss John Rolfe and Pocahontas
would have made the documentary too long?



Oh my, yes. To pick one would be to slight hundreds. I don't get to the
original Kicotan Village site on the Hampton Roads, but I do drive over the
Hampton River in downtown Hampton every day. I feel a sense of awe of the
land. Most of the water front in Hampton has been usurped by realtors
building upscale houses and condos, but one place near the bridge is private
and has a garden, showing the rich soil the later settlers who scattered out
across The Peninsula must have enjoyed.

We have so little public waterfront left that the city council has backed
down a trifle on allowing upscale housing on Buckroe Beach. It insisted
the public beaches would remain but there would not have been any public
parking. And we're fighting mad about Fortress Monroe perhaps being turned
into a gated community for the wealthy one day after the federal government
closes its army base there. That is pristine beach on both the Chesapeake
Bay and Mill Point facing across from Buckroe Beach, not quite an island, but
close with a gated community at the narrowest end.

Every step, every site, everything here has some historical value (as do
most places) but this area was first and if you saw the tiny clearing
representation against the large backdrop of forests that continued for thousands
of miles on the TV show, you know how really brave those men were,
untitled and working men, taking a chance to improve themselves and pay off the
investors safe in England.
Let's not forget the Spanish who were in the area first. The English knew
they had prior claim and could react against them.

Well, it's all on line.

Shirley Maynard
Hampton, VA with a few roots in Virginia a long time ago.




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