One of the most important historic sites in the United States has been put on a list of endangered places. Preservation groups warn that Jamestown, Virginia, may not survive another generation because of climate change.
On May 13, 1607, 104 men and boys with the Virginia Company of London choose a small piece of land on the northeast bank of what is now the James River near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay as the spot for a permanent settlement.
The colonists picked the site because it was surrounded by water on three sides, affording them some safety. However, 400 years later, that water is what’s destroying it. And because of rising water, the back end of that piece of land is now underwater, making Jamestown an island.
It’s “urgently threatened by a changing climate,” said Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer at National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Each year the National Trust for Historic Preservation picks 11 American historic sites that need saving the most. Some are threatened by disrepair and neglect, vandalism, or in the case of Jamestown, sea-level rise, storms, and recurrent flooding.
The 2022 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, describes Jamestown as: “The original site of the first permanent English settlement in North America and the first capital of the Virginia colony … represents the meshing of cultures in North America, from 12,000 years of indigenous history to the arrival of English settlers and the forced migration of enslaved people from Africa.”
Since 1994, close to 85 percent of the 17th-century fort at Jamestown has been uncovered, revealing evidence of buildings, and more than 3 million artifacts. The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation manages operations and the public archaeology program.
In 2013 they found evidence of cannibalism during the brutal winter of 1609-10, known as the Starving Time. And in 2015 they discovered the skeletal remains of the first settlers.
The tides of the James River are becoming higher and more damaging to the archaeological sites, the water table is rising, and storms are more frequent and severe, causing dangerous floods.
“There are multiple challenges and they’re all related to climate change,” says James Horn, president of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, reports the BBC. “Essentially, we can’t get rid of the water.”
The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation is working on some engineering solutions to help Jamestown adapt to immediate threats from sea level rise and extreme weather events. The National Trust says the organization “needs partners and funding to implement additional climate change mitigation plans.”
The group plans to elevate the buildings and roads, repair the seawall and install flood berms — but this might not be enough.
Evidence of the threat to Jamestown Island is already seen in 3-foot floods that occur about 5-6 times a year just west of James Fort and at the southwest portion of Jamestown, where a branch of the Pitch and Tar Swamp is encroaching on the Jamestown Rediscovery Center on three sides.
“We are preparing to make decisions about what we may not be able to save,” Malone-France said. Sadly, it’s not just Jamestown. “We will see impacts of climate change on our historical resources all across this country,” said Malone-France.
Other endangered sites on the list include Camp Naco in Arizona, home to the Black Buffalo soldiers who served in the segregated U.S. Army after the Civil War; the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama, a sanctuary for civil rights marchers in 1965 (extensive termite damage forced it to close); and the Minidoka World War II Internment Camps, where Japanese Americans were locked up.
As for Jamestown? Preservationists estimate they have about five years before it could be too late to save it all.
