Curious Traveler

Royal charters, new governments, and dainty bonnets, and towns named after William, York, and James. It is time to get curious about colonial America. Remember when you were a child and all you asked was why, why, why? Well, I never quite outgrew that whole quest for knowledge phase.

In fact, I've made a career out of asking who, what, where, why, and how. As an arts and travel journalist for the past 20 years. (orchestral music) So, if I have an insatiable curiosity about the exciting, inspiring, beautiful world of art, architecture, and hidden history all around us, I bet you do too. This isn't your typical what to do on a vacation travel show, oh no.

This is your all-access pass to a deeper understanding of the world's great art and architecture, people and places, history, and how did they do thats. So, come along on our educational journey, our field trip for grown-ups who have never quite grown up, and learn on Curious Traveler. (colonial fife and drum music) In 1606, a brave group of 105 men and boys sailed all the way from England to the New World. Here, they established a new colony called Jamestown, and the history of colonial America begins.

(lively orchestral music) Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg, together they are known as America's historic triangle, where the first English colonists settled in the New World, and later paved the way for a new nation. But why? This was during the Age of Discovery, a time when European powers battled each other for new territories. By the the time the Virginia colony was being settled by the English, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French, had all been exploring and colonizing here for centuries, in what they called the New World.

But of course, Native Americans, who had been here for tens of thousands of years, simply called the area home. This one specific area of the New World, just a small settlement of about 100 people, would later grow to be hugely important to the history of America. (orchestral music) Here's what I'm curious about in America's historic triangle. What was so valuable about the New World, that enticed English settlers to come here?

Why was this location chosen to be the first settlement? And why wasn't this location chosen? And why were these spots names Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Virginia? What are these archeologists discovering inside this church?

Why are these ships important, and this building? What was life like for the 17th century settlers? And the 18th century colonists? Why was this university built here, and what does it have to do with the capitol of Virginia?

What to the Rockefellers have to do with this museum, and this hotel? How can you taste American history inside this restaurant? And sip history in this restaurant? So much to be curious about here in the greater Williamsburg area.

(upbeat music) We begin our exploration into America's historic triangle at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. You will still see the British flag flying over Jamestown today. (upbeat music) But why was this location chosen, and why did the English come here? Well, King James I of England established the Virginia company in 1606, hoping to find gold and a water route to the Pacific here in North America.

So, in 1607, they sailed up this river and decided this would be a pretty nice spot. And it was because of that river that this location was chosen for a new colony named for a queen, and new town named for a king. That colony of course, Virginia, and the town, Jamestown. So, that's where we get the name Virginia, for Queen Elizabeth I, the virgin queen, and where we get the name Jamestown for King James.

Even this river was renamed the James River, but when the settlers first came here, it was called the Powhatan River, which brings us to the Native American English relations of the colonial period. (upbeat orchestral music) While Jamestown was established on an uninhabited peninsula, it was still within the territory of the Powhatan Indians. At the time, there were more than 100 Powhatan villages near Jamestown. As the English settlers kept creeping more and more into Indian territory, eventually, the Anglo-Powhatan wars broke out, and ultimately ended the Indian power over the area.

(upbeat orchestral music) Today, all that history and more is being rediscovered as part of the Jamestown rediscovery project, where you can watch archeologists at work, at a live dig, as they rediscover American history. It's all under the leadership of Dr. William Kelso, known around here as the Indiana Jones of Jamestown. The building that you see here now is from 1907, commemorating earlier churches that go back as early as 1617, - Whoa.

And it was in that earliest church on the same spot, that the first representative assembly met in America, and it's the genesis of our governmental system. -

Christine

Dr. Kelso's team has unearthed thousands of artifacts here at the church, and the surrounding James Fork and Jamestown. They are still learning about America's first colony. (upbeat music) To bring all that history back to life, we now head over to another part of Jamestown.

The living history museum at Jamestown Settlement. Here, costume interpreters immerse you in the life of the earliest English settlers. Including the baker, who likely had a couple of roosters to keep him company during those long days of baking for the entire town. So, all of the, I think what's interesting is that all of this had to be shipped over in the early days.

-

Baker

Yes, yes. - You weren't growing wheat here yet, or anything like that. Wheat doesn't grow very well in Virginia, Oh, okay. - Not as well as corn.

Okay. - Which is really something. And tell me again about, so this flour versus this flour. Who had this, and then who had this.

This would've been your coarse wheat flour, or say rye flour, oat flour, would've been more suited for the working class. Where as this fine milled white flour was more suited for the tables of gentry. And you know what, they got their just desserts later cause we all come to find out that this is the healthier stuff anyhow, right. Yes, yes.

(Christine laughs) So those snooty upper class, fine you can have that processed bleached white flour all you want. Oh, it's amazing! 17th century bread. Smells good too, that's great.

Then, from baking to sailing, you can learn what it was like for those original settlers who crossed the Atlantic in 1606 to establish Jamestown. -

Sailor

Ready on the main? -

Man

Ready on the main. - Ready on the main. You can board a life-sized replicas of the three ships. The Godspeed, the Susan Constant, and the Discovery.

You can even join the crew, and hoist a sail. Haul, haul, haul. - I'm hauling, I'm hauling! Well, look at that.

(upbeat music) Next in our historic triangle is adorable Yorktown, one of the oldest towns in America. It was named after the equally adorable York, England, which is a lovely spot to have tea and scones, if you have the time, but I digress. Today, Yorktown, Virginia includes many of its original buildings. Some are rebuilt, and all are just lovely.

Yorktown developed around 1691, because of its proximity to the York River, which is just a few blocks behind me here. It became a very important port for the Virginia colony, shipping goods in and out. In fact, they did such a good job with all that shipping, that it is believed that the American tariff system began right here in tiny Yorktown. That's right, this is the colonial Custom House.

This is where all the goods coming into the colony from the port were taxed. (cash register chimes) But of course, Yorktown is historic for another important event, the American Revolution. (colonial fife and drum music) (gun bangs) You can experience Yorktown's role in the war at two locations, Yorktown Battlefield, and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, where there is another living history museum, with enthusiastic costumed interpreters. (gun bangs) The outdoor living history museum will help you to experience what life was like for the soldiers here, and at the nearby farmstead, you can also experience the life of the everyday folk.

Simple things we take for granted today, like clothing, all had to be made by hand. You wouldn't believe all the steps involved to create linen fabric. You start with just a small handful of dry, brittle flax. How in the world does this become soft fabric?

Well, you bash it with this special wooden bashing thing, of course. Any method to the madness, or just drop it? Not really, just drop it and hang on. (Christine laughs) But we're just beginning.

Then, you swat it on a second wooden swatting thing. And then, finally, you pull it through a brush that looks more like a tiny bed of nails. -

Woman

Just like hair in a hairbrush. -

Christine

All that, to make a tiny batch of thread, that then has to go through a whole other process, to become actual fabric, that then has to be cut and sewn into clothing. Wow - On a loom. -

Christine

No wonder the colonists only owned one outfit. (loom creaks) Now that we're all dressed, we go to the third point in our historic triangle, to the largest of the three towns and cities, Williamsburg. Once the capitol of the Virginia colony. But why was this location chosen?

Well, it has something to do with this very important building right here. In 1693, King William III and Queen Mary II, signed a charter for a perpetual college of divinity, philosophy, languages, and my favorite part, other good arts and sciences. All to be built in the Virginia colony, and you'll never guess what they called it, the College of William and Mary. That's right, the College of William and Mary is the reason why Williamsburg developed here.

It all started here at the Wren Building, named in honor of Sir Christopher Wren, who designed St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The Wren building was built between 1695 and 1700, making it the oldest college building still standing in the United States. Today, it functions as the entrance to the campus, but once the Wren building was the entire college.

So, why and how was William and Mary established here, just a few short years after the colony of Jamestown was established? Didn't the colonists have other things to worry about? Like, you know, survival? Why did they decide to have a college here?

Well, some of it was to spread knowledge, and spread the doctrine of the Church of England across the colonies. It makes them look good, they're founding an institution of higher learning, they're also setting up a place to train ministers to work in the New World. -

Christine

The Wren building wasn't just the college, it was also the temporary capitol of the colony of Virginia, and then, the town of Williamsburg grew around the college. College students give a group of addresses made for 1699, to convince the legislature to move the capitol here, and establish a new city. So, the city of Williamsburg is younger than the College of William and Mary. And in fact, the city is laid out from the college.

So, this is the, you know, the beginning point of that survey. -

Christine

And if you stand here at the beginning point and look east, you can see where Williamsburg grew and grew. All along Duke of Gloucester Street, all the way to the Williamsburg capitol building. From one capitol, to another. Which brings us to our next curious location, Colonial Williamsburg.

(upbeat music) (gun bangs) Once the capitol moved here, the town was renamed Williamsburg, after King William III. That was in the 1600s, but what you see here today is because of what happened in the 1900s. Williamsburg was settled in 1633, but Colonial Williamsburg came about around 1926. Why?

Well, because of a reverend and a Rockefeller. Yup, in the 1920s, Reverend Goodwin of Williamsburg convinced John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help preserve the heritage of Colonial Williamsburg.

So, plans were made to create this one-of-a-kind, unique, open-air, outdoor living history museum. About 500 buildings have been restored or recreated, all centered along Duke of Gloucester Street, which was the original Main Street of Williamsburg. (colonial fife and drum music) So many beautiful historic buildings to see here in Colonial Williamsburg. This one is the grandest.

Tell me about this particular building behind us. This is the Governor's Palace. This was the home to nine different governors, over the course of the 1700s. In that time period, a governor wasn't at all what we think of as a governor today.

Were they appointed by the king? -

Benton

Exactly, the governors, -

Christine

Yeah, it's a whole different ballgame. The governor's appointed by His Majesty The King, or serving at His Majesty's behest, but we are the most loyal, the oldest, the wealthiest, and the proudest colony of His Majesty, so we have no problems with that until the 1760s or so. There might've been a minor problem. And I also think it's interesting that it's called a Governor's Palace.

Yes. Not mansion, not home, palace. Originally, it was meant to be a white house for the governor, because every governor had lived in just a private residence somewhere in the capitol city, whether here or at Jamestown previously, so they decide to build an executive mansion, Governor Spotswood starts allocating so many funds from the General Assembly, that they basically said, whoa, whoa, whoa Spotswood, you and your palace need to calm down, and someone went oh, I like that name, and it just kinda stuck ever since. Okay, okay, excellent.

So it wasn't like, oh, you're gonna be like, Oh, no. - a king in your palace. No, no, no, no, no - No. (upbeat music) -

Christine

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison are all a part of Williamsburg's history, but it is also lovely to experience the life of the everyday folk here, inside the taverns and shops that have been painstakingly recreated, and are full of authentic detail. What we're doing right now... -

Christine

You will learn all kinds of unexpected trivia here, like those whalebone corsets were an all too real fact of life for ladies back then. Okay, so this - Just, just in case. new style stays engineered to give you a slightly more natural figure, lightly boned. Now when you say boned, what, in this time period would it have actually been bone?

Baleen, which we call whalebone, or wood. (Christine laughing) But, - Men don't understand what we're going through. - The nice thing about... -

Christine

And, over at the apothecary, you will learn that deer antlers made great Christmas cookies, well of course they do. This one, I think is fun. Deer antler. -

Christine

Okay. -

Woman

So there's the product called ammonium carbonate, which has been used for cooking, as a leveling agent. So 18th century, we would make it by grating deer antler, heating it, and then the finished product is called salt of hartshorn, or today we say ammonium carbonate. So, German Christmas cookies... -

Christine

Were made out of deer antler? Originally, the ammonium carbonate to make those was made out of deer antler, and I'm pretty sure you don't have to use it today, but we also use it for smelling salts, so if you feel like venting, we can smell some of those. Who in the world thought of that, said hey, I see a deer antler, - Let's eat it, and see what happens. - Let me make some cookies.

Some of this goes back to ancient medicine, Greek and Roman, and the stories have been lost, but it amazes us, it's like, who's the first one who decides to distill something, and say hey, I can use it for this. I can use that. (upbeat music) So much to see and learn in Colonial Williamsburg. When Rockefeller was building Colonial Williamsburg, he did something else rather smart too.

He and his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, had a luxury hotel built just steps away. (upbeat orchestral music) The beautiful Williamsburg Inn is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1937, and it has some curious names attached to it, like Rockefeller, Churchill, and Her Majesty. Her Majesty the Queen stayed here, at the Williamsburg Inn twice, in 1957 and again, in 2007.

To commemorate the 350th and the 400th anniversaries of Jamestown, and she actually even descended this very staircase. Probably a lot more elegantly than I am. And it was during her 1957 visit that this photo was taken. There's even a suite named after her, right next to the suite named after Winston Churchill.

So I guess that little 1776 bump in English American relations has been smoothed over by now. (upbeat orchestral music) The royal touches are just the beginning of the luxury and history here. Since the Rockefellers had the Inn built, it is only fitting that there's a restaurant here called the Rockefeller Room. And here, you can order Oysters Abby, named after Abby Rockefeller.

-

Travis

Here we have the Oysters Abby, you can... -

Christine

And there's another way you can taste your history here. The executive chef uses the same spices that the early American colonists used, in his dishes today -

Travis

We do fresh breads for the restaurant every day. We also serve it with a high-fat European butter, with our Tremin spice blend. You had me at high fat, but, so we love that. Fat equals flavor.

- And then talk about... Fat equals flavor. Why don't people understand that? What are the spices that you use?

So the spices on this are our Tremin spice blend. It's garam masala, black pepper, and vanilla bean. Sorry, what was that first one again? Garam masala.

What is that? Garam masala is a combination of spices, it's actually a spice blend. It consists of cumin, pepper, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, clove. Oh, wow.

So it's a nice blend there, and we accompany that with black pepper and vanilla bean. You know where we get that idea? -

Christine

Where? -

Travis

We found out that Thomas Jefferson experimented with that flavor profile in icecreams. -

Man

Yummy! -

Christine

Another fun way to experience history here is everyday, at sunset, when a special fife and drum core marches through the lobby and out onto the terrace, complete with an adorable little dog, of course named Liberty. (colonial fife and drum music) Next, from colonial spices to colonial vintages. We now visit the historic Williamsburg Winery, which wasn't always called Williamsburg Winery. Here's a bit of curious history you may not know.

This vineyard almost was the location for Jamestown's settlement, because aboard the Godspeed, was a man named Captain Gabriel Archer, and he thought this location was perfect, but his rival, Captain John Smith overruled him. Sadly, just a few years later, Captain Archer passed away at Jamestown, so in his honor, this location was renamed Archer's Hope. So that's why today you can dine in the Gabriel Archer Tavern at Williamsburg Winery. This historic vineyard was founded by Patrick Duffeler, who brought years of European wine making experience to Williamsburg, and he loves to share how wine making began here in America in the early 1600s.

They said, "every settler should acquire the training "of vines", because in those days, if you left a glass of water on the side of the counter for two or three hours or two or three days, it didn't stay well, but wine and beer are stable. Interesting. And here's what's really cool. The winery has vintages named after famous American colonists.

And finally, from wine to brew, there is one more tasty bit of history in the historic district of Williamsburg. With an interesting historic tie to a certain founding father, and some founding furry fellas. -

Man

Hello. Amber Ox, as the name itself, is directly tied back to the oxen and their role in the Colonial Williamsburg era, and farming, and the agriculture market back in the establishment of Colonial Williamsburg, or Williamsburg as a city, and you know, we wanted to kinda pay homage to that. -

Christine

The Amber Ox, or oxen, with reddish coats, used to pull grain carts through the streets of Williamsburg. They were also the same type of red coated oxen used at George Washington's Mount Vernon, where of course, George, had his own distillery. -

Man

Cheers. -

Christine

How's that for an interesting bit of thirsty history? Now, as far as brew recipes, those have probably changed a bit over the years. I don't, somehow recall, studying up on my history, that in colonial times, they had anything called The Thing With The Stuff. Yeah, nope, probably definitely didn't have The Thing With The Stuff.

It's funny when somebody orders it, and they're like, I'll take The Thing With The Stuff. Of course you will, yeah, of course you will. Amber Ox Public House is known for their quirky named small batch brews, like Made Ya Look, Little Tyrant, and The Thing With The Stuff. But, if you come for the brew, you will stay for the food.

It is out of this world good. Executive chef Troy Buckley, all tatted up, and grinning from ear to ear, created the divine recipes here. I wanna see what you reach for, you know what I'm gonna reach for. Alright, what are you gonna reach for?

Is that what you're gonna do, alright. Yeah I'm going straight for it. I'm gonna go for the biscuit. You already, yeah, there you go.

Alright, let's see. Let's do the taste test here, alright. I gotta get some of that bacon jam though. -

Christine

There you go. - That's where it's at. To your health. Yeah, cheers.

Oh my god, what did I just eat, it's so good. (fork clinks) Down on the bottom of my grit cake, and that's the spoon bread. - Yes ma'am. It's carb and carb, that's why it's so good.

Yeah. - Holy cow. Yeah, what more do you want? Nothing.

I'm not sure if the early English colonists ate spoon bread on top of grit cakes, but they sure are good. (upbeat music) So, from a quest for gold, aboard three small ships that braved one large ocean, all to create a tiny settlement, named after the English king. Then onto another original English town, that played an important role when English-American relations weren't so good, (gun bangs) but it was still important to look good. Even if it took forever to get dressed.

To an institution of higher learning, named after a king and queen, that became the capitol of this thriving colony, named after a different queen. Then that capitol moved here, and yet another new town developed, where colonists could shop and squeeze into the latest fashions, and nearby is a winery, that was almost the original settlement, and also nearby is the perfect old-meets-new tavern of sorts, that pays tribute to the four-legged, furry workers of the colonial era. Which brings us back to another four-legged, furry friend named Liberty, and this is where we wrap up our tour of greater Williamsburg, and sleep steeped in history and luxury, in a spot good enough for the queen of the country who started a colony here all those centuries ago. America's historic triangle has so much to be curious about.

Thank you for joining us on our educational journey, and hopefully now you're even more curious, about the who, what, where, why, when, and how, of Colonial America. As the colonists would say, farewell, and godspeed. (colonial fife and drum music)