Thunderous Salute to Legacy of Jamestown

JAMESTOWN, Va., May 12

After all the years of planning and all the millions of dollars spent excavating archaeological sites, building tall-masted ships, renovating museum galleries and making sure the world took note of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the New World and history, history, history -- it's time to party, people!

And party they did Saturday: Thousands gathered as part of a three-day "Anniversary Weekend" on the site where 104 English colonists sought to make a new future for themselves in May 1607. In their struggle to survive on a rank, mosquito-infested island, they probably didn't imagine that hordes armed with camcorders, cellphones and digital cameras would celebrate their accomplishment four centuries later.

Those hordes flinched at the roar of cannons. They watched workers screening dirt for artifacts at an archaeological dig where the first fort once stood. They lined a pier on the James River as elegant reproductions of the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery reenacted the first landing. They crowded the rocky shore farther downstream as a shallop -- a glorified rowboat with a single sail and an eager crew of 20-somethings -- embarked on a summer-long voyage to re-create Capt. John Smith's explorations of the Chesapeake Bay.

People in baseball hats and blue jeans, khaki shorts and flip-flops mingled with people in breeches, tunics, petticoats, boots and grand hats flowing with ostrich plumes. It was stripped-down contemporary style, such as it is, juxtaposed with elaborate period costumes worn by a multitude of historical interpreters, who explained the settlement's history and demonstrated 400-year-old trades and crafts.

There were many speeches.

And there will be at least another today, when President Bush joins the festivities on the date four centuries ago when the explorers arrived.

The crowd was only a little smaller than organizers had hoped for, but those who came were thankful for the relatively short lines. Some of the highlights of their day:

9:30 a.m. -- People stream into Jamestown Settlement, the state-run gallery and living history museum, while a guy in English garb with a microphone invites audience members onstage to school them on the niceties of drilling in close formation, Jacobean style.

"Order your halberds!" he says. "Two steps to the fore, march! That's everybody!"

Another employee tells people that they might not get a spot on the pier to see the reenactment of the landing. Employees tell the crowd that the best spot to see America's big birthday party is -- where else? -- on a nearby JumboTron.

10:16 a.m. -- This would be a bad time to mess up. The Susan Constant is gliding to the pier as television cameras roll. Waiting on the pier is dockhand Dennis Parris, 52, in a billowing linen shirt and blue breeches, his hair spilling from a floppy yellow cap.