America: founded in a swamp

When it comes to celebrating historic anniversaries, Americans go all out.

Take the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Va., for example. Celebration organizers even got Britain's Queen Elizabeth to visit the place earlier this month during her visit to the United States.

She also traveled to Kentucky for the derby. Of course, most Americans would say watching a horse race would be preferable to Jamestown any day.

Jamestown may be a tourist attraction today but even the best real estate agent would have had a hard time selling it to Englishmen in 1607.

After all, the first English settlement in America wasn't founded on a pristine beach or atop a cliff with a commanding view of the ocean. No. Rather, English settlers decided to set up a town on a swampy, mosquito-infested island in the James River.

Fighting disease, hunger and Indians almost proved to be too much. Many of the settlers didn't survive the first winter.

The educated folk in England probably thought these settlers were crazy.

It's rather humbling to think that our nation started out as nothing more than a swampy island. But any nation that can develop beach-front property the way we do clearly has something going for it.

After all, Florida was a swamp, too, and look what we've done with it.

If we can turn a desert into a state (Arizona) and even make a spit of land a state (Rhode Island), I guess it's not surprising that Americans first settled a swamp.

And they did so as a commercial venture. The Virginia Company of London sponsored the mission that led to the founding of Jamestown. The company wanted gold and silver and the location of the fabled Northwest Passage.

If the Virginia Company were around today, it probably would be sponsoring NASCAR. Certainly, it would be more profitable.

Back in the 1600s, most of the United States was a wilderness. No one back then was talking about creating national parks. Tourism wasn't on the minds of most folks. Surviving was.

Back then, the English settlers were the only endangered species.

They reported seeing "faire meddowes and goodly tall trees." I suspect they were just glad to see land.

The settlement survived partly because the Virginia Company in 1619 sent a number of "young, handsome and honestly educated maids" to wed the single men that populated the town.

The town burned to the ground in 1676 as a result of a planter's revolt against the royal governor. Fire destroyed the town again in 1698 and anyone with common sense soon moved to Williamsburg, clearly foreseeing the day when Williamsburg would become an amusement park.

No one saw anything amusing about Jamestown.

Much of the original land has been washed away by tidal currents. For many years, only a few foundation stones and the ruined tower of a brick church stood as reminders of the settlement.

Only two people now live on the island, an archaeologist and his wife.

But Jamestown does have something going for it. It's now a historic site, administered by the National Park Service. There's even a museum.

President Bush visited Jamestown earlier this month to mark the anniversary. "I think you will be amazed at how our country got started," the Associated Press quoted the president as saying.

Of course, the president is just glad that the White House wasn't built at Jamestown. There's just not enough room for all those federal bureaucrats. Besides, who wants to have a rose garden on swamp land?

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.