Travels Into Our Past: America's Living History Museums & Historical Sites. Wayne P. Anderson

      Columbus’s Santa Maria in Columbus, Ohio

      2. Surrounded by History

      St. Augustine, Florida

      The motto in St. Augustine is “Let history surround you.” And surround you it does; it’s everywhere downtown. The “old city” section of St. Augustine is small, and the city fathers have worked hard to keep it as close to the original as possible.

      No McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants are allowed within its area. No new buildings, unless they look as if they were very old. The Hilton here is light pink, not very high and fits right in. No neon lights, and no colored lights in the signs. The guides are all well trained, licensed and, if they work at night, must carry a lantern.

      We started our day by buying tickets to the Spanish Quarter. In original buildings from the 17th century, reenactors who are skilled craftsmen are stationed at their places of business in period costume.

      Business was slow the day we were there, so we had plenty of time to talk with these skilled artisans. We met with the herbalist, who was doubling as the candlestick maker. Herbal knowledge here came from three sources: the original Spanish settlers, the local American Indians and the black slaves from Africa. The herbalist answered questions about the various dried herbs on display.

      Also on duty were a blacksmith, a carpenter, a scribe, a leather worker and a gunnery officer--who just happened to be preparing his lunch in an iron pot over a charcoal fire. He started with half a pound of bacon, threw in a chopped potato and, when it was cooked, added two eggs from the hen house outside.

      Our most interesting chat was with the carpenter, who showed us how he had modified a lathe by adding a special hemp cord that made the lathe more like the original. The leather worker had stacks of leather on hand and, while working with original tools, was producing objects to be sold in the attached gift shop.

      The Spanish Quarter is a small operation compared to what is available for visitors in nearby Orlando. The individual attention and the authenticity more than make up for the lack of size. We found that if we were interested in a particular skill of the period, these re-enactors seemed to know answers to most of our questions.

      Castillo de San Marcos

      After lunch, we visited the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. Constructed in sandstone between 1672 and 1695, it was a replacement for nine wooden forts.

      The Spanish were fortunate to find a stone that was easy to work with when wet and was impervious to cannonballs when it had dried for a year. It absorbed them rather than being shattered by them. The British, who attacked the fort with massive force on a number of occasions, had a hard time believing their cannon barrages were so ineffective.

      The fort changed hands on a number of occasions by treaty but never because the force inside had been defeated. The Spanish gave it to Britain, who lost it to us during the Revolutionary War. We gave it back to the Spanish and then bought it back when we purchased Florida from them. The South held it during the Civil War, and the North got it back at the end of the war. It was used to hold American Indians during the Indian wars, and it served as a defensive fort for the Army during World War II.

      The National Park Service has focused on the fort’s history. On the hour, a park ranger gives a tour of some aspect of the fort. Our guide talked about the construction, how it fared in battle and the different living arrangements for troops under the Spanish and the British. She also discussed the two major attempts by the British to take it.

      Park rangers narrate a 20-minute movie and re-enactors, including soldiers with muskets of the period, demonstrate what life was like during various periods of its history. Like so much else in St. Augustine, the fort surrounds you with history.

      Ghost Tour

      We decided to take one of the “Original Ghost Tours of St. Augustine” because an ad noted they had been featured on the Discovery and Travel channels. That gave it extra credibility for us.

      St. Augustine is the third most ghost infested city in America. Only Savannah, Georgia and New Orleans have more. Why so many? Our guide, Karen, felt it was because there had been so many violent deaths here and many deaths of young people from diseases like yellow fever.

      Violence? An example was the beheading of 200 French soldiers by the Spanish army that captured them on an island across the bay from where we were standing. Shrimp boat crews coming into the bay in the evening report they see the heads glowing green in the water and disappearing as they get closer to them.

      According to some guides ghosts are able to generate enough energy to enable them to appear in solid form and converse. For example, two children in 19th century dress and with rotten teeth often meet tourists on St. George Street, have a brief conversation and then vanish.

      Whatever your beliefs about ghosts this is a worthwhile tour; you will learn a lot of history, see the old town under conditions that are not possible during the day, and it will be a fun experience.

      Re-enactors demonstrate what life was like in Casti de San Marcos.

      3. A Failed Attempt at Settlement

      Jamestown, Virginia

      It felt otherworldly to watch a hologram of a human skull hanging in space and turning before us with the face of its previous owner gradually being reconstructed on its surface. This was the face of one of the original settlers in the first permanent English colony in North America at Jamestown, Virginia. This and other striking new ways of presenting history at Historic Jamestown were at the Nathalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium that opened in May 2006 on Jamestown Island.

      An impressive aspect of the center is how modern forensic science techniques also have been used to reconstruct some of the skeletons excavated from an unmarked graveyard beneath the Statehouse. Several skeletons have undergone considerable detective work enabling archaeologists to surmise who they were, how they lived and how they died. Given the advances in forensics and facial and body reconstruction, we can foresee the day when we visit historic sites peopled by mannequins that are exact reproductions of the individuals who died there.

      On display are the skeletons of a founding father, Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, and “JR,” a young man showing evidence that he died from a musket ball wound to his knee. Also reconstructed were the faces of three other colonists.

      Items dug up from the long lost James Fort site are on display for the first time. Artifacts such as musical instruments, games, tools and trade items are placed in their historical context with a recorded narration explaining what they tell us about life in early Colonial times. Another unusual display is of a well with a suit of armor and dozens of other objects suspended in the positions in which they were discovered by archaeologists.

      Most of the people who set out to colonize the area in 1607 died young. Many of the men who came were of high social status, and the usual interpretation is they did not have the hunting or agricultural skills needed for survival. Archeologists point out a major factor might have been that they arrived here during the worst drought in 770 years.

      The Archaearium building itself is highly unusual. With large glass windows and an exterior coated in copper, it is placed over the remains of the last Statehouse in Jamestown. The placement allows visitors to see portions of the excavated ruins through sections of the glass floor.

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