Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip visited Virginia this spring. So did President Bush and the First Lady two weeks later. And former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor served as the hostess for the festivities. Let’s explore the
state’s highlights and find out what drew them here and what your groups will experience when they visit.
Located midway between New York and Florida, Virginia is the northernmost southern state or the southernmost mid-Atlantic state. The western part is mountainous, with the beautiful Shenandoah Valley lying between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge mountain ranges. Scenic highlights include the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park and the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. The central piedmont contains rolling hills and then flattens as it approaches the Atlantic coast.
Of course this May was the 400th anniversary of the settlement at Jamestown, marking the first permanent English settlement in America in 1607, thirteen years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. (In fact, Captain John Smith named all of the East Coast as Virginia and later referred to the Jamestown area as
“Old Virginia colony and dominion” and the now-Massachusetts area as “New Virginia colony and dominion.”
Many believe this reference is the source for the state’s nickname of The Old Dominion.) There are two areas commemorating Jamestown. Historic Jamestowne is at the original landing site and is run by the National Park Service. It opened an Archaearium last summer that presents objects belonging to the colonists
and demonstrates how they were excavated while showing what the original fort looked like.
The nearby Jamestown Settlement is run the by the state and features extensive exhibition galleries, a film on 17th century Virginia through the eyes of the English, Powhatan Indian and westcentral African cultures, and a special exhibition placing Jamestown in a more global context, with major artifacts such as copy of the Magna Carta.
By John Closter
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Courtesy of leisuregrouptravel.com
