The European history of the United States begins in Jamestown, Virginia, which is the first permanent colony founded on May 13, 1607.
The 104 men and boys chose the site because it was surrounded by water on 3 sides. But 400 years later, that’s what destroys it.
It is “urgently threatened by climate change,” said Katherine Malone-France, head of preservation at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Jamestown is one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 most endangered historic sites nationwide.
The James River overflows from the historic levee and heavy rains flood the archaeological sites. Over the past century, the waters around the colony have risen more than a foot and a half, and will continue to rise about 3 feet higher until the end of the century.
“It’s just the severity of remote storms and coastal erosion, but the increasing frequency of storms,” Malone-France said.
The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation seeks to save him. The organization plans to build buildings and roads, fix the levee and install flood toilets, but that may not be enough.
“We are preparing to make decisions about what we might not be able to save,” Malone-France said.
And it’s not just Jamestown.
“We’re going to see the effects of climate on our historic resources across the country,” Malone-France said.
Other endangered sites on the list include Camp Naco in Arizona, home to Black Buffalo infantrymen who served in the segregated U. S. army. U. S. after the Civil War; Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama, a sanctuary for civil rights protesters in 1965 (extensive termite damage forced closure); and the Minidoka burial camps of World War II, where Japanese Americans were locked up. Developers must build a wind farm on site, which can destroy some of the building’s foundation; the National Trust says wind turbines can be built elsewhere.
“Renewable energy or Minidoka: we can have both,” Malone-France said.
“Preservation is not about the past. Preservation is about the long term we build together,” Malone-France continued.
There are about five years left to save Jamestown before part of the story is lost.
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