This article is the second in a series commemorating the American Evolution – Virginia to America 1619-2019 . See article one here.
You don’t need a Sci-Fi-worthy gadget to be a time traveler. In fact, one of the best ways to explore four centuries of Virginia history is by taking to foot and walking in the footsteps of those who made it. There is something for every kind of history lover, whether it’s exploring one of Virginia’s numerous Civil War battlefields, walking the field at Yorktown where Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington’s Continental Army, meandering through the churchyards and gravesites around Virginia’s many historic churches, or strolling the grounds, gardens, outbuildings and forests surrounding the homes of Virginia’s eight presidents. Here are five distinctive Virginia walking tours that will provide a full sense of the arch of the state’s history, from its role as the birthplace of American democracy to the birthplace of civil rights.Historic Jamestowne and Jamestown Settlement

Hoeing tobacco outside the re-created fort at Jamestown Settlement.
Step back 400 years by exploring the site of the first permanent English settlement in America at Historic Jamestowne and the Jamestown Settlement, and learn where three cultures – Native American, African and European – converged to change the course of human history. Jamestown Settlement, a Virginia living-history museum, offers an interpretation of the original fortified village erected on a small island just upstream from the mouth of the James River. At Historic Jamestowne, the original site, stroll the grounds and visit the rebuilt church attached to the original church tower, the site where the first democratically elected legislative body in the New World first met in 1619. At Jamestown Settlement, board replicas of three ships that brought colonists from England and marvel that the brave men and women made the treacherous ocean voyages in such small vessels in hopes of making a new beginning in an unchartered wilderness. Then, watch historically-clad interpreters demonstrate various aspects of 17th-century life at Jamestown Settlement – both in the settlement where colonists adapted skills they brought from the Old World and at the re-created Powhatan Indian Village that predated the arrival of the English by at least 100 years. It’s impossible to accurately declare the points in time that the great nations of the Old World emerged. Walking the Jamestown site with this thought in mind, it’s hard not to be struck by the profound truth that the world’s most powerful nation sprung directly from this inauspicious beginning.Colonial Williamsburg

The Appalachian Trail at Swift Run Gap

Mabry Mill

Booker T. Washington National Monument
