Before leaving Hingham I finally was able to get a picture of this sign. Massachusetts has one for each of their towns and it's such a kick to drive from one town to another and see this sign with date of settlement started. Hard to get pictures because you don't know where the town line begins and there is no place to pull over for a quick stop and picture. It's a bummer. On this one I was lucky enough after a month to be driving towards sign and 1st at stoplight with camera next to me. ha! All these towns are so historic and have some wonderful history. Too bad so many have been neglected. Roads are terrible in most places and some are really run down while others thrive.. just like anywhere. Just interesting observations. I was taken so much with Hingham because we lived there for 5 weeks and it was so CLEAN! Loved the manicured yards and over 1800 historic homes and some still in residence of 13 generations! That is something in this young country with so littl
Although people like to think of the Pilgrims as being our first settlers in what would become the United States; in fact the first real settlement was in Jamestown in 1607! Although this area did not prosper for so many reasons just as Plymouth did not become the main harbor in Massachusetts. In any event, it was a fun visit to Jamestown to see the monument of John Smith who by the way did not remain here but went back to his native England. They have been doing digs here for years and have uncovered thousands of artifacts. It's quite amazing actually and they now have large monument dedicated to the settlers of Jamestown. There is a boardwalk from the National Park Visitor Center out to this area and we noticed the necessity of the boardwalk is to protect the swamp it covers and that is the main reason they found this area undesireable was the mosquitos and swampy landscape. Interesting. Of course Virginia grew by leaps and bounds very quickly too as the New World opened up to allow anyone who dared to travel in such conditions and willing to work for a new life. The Munday's first arrived in VA back in the 1600's and we can only guess at which port but could have been Jamestown since it was the main port for about the 1st 80 years or so!
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