William Kelso started with a hunch and a shovel, and ended with the discovery of the birthplace of America.
This weekend, during the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Kelso watched proudly as thousands of visitors took in his discovery, the very site where 104 English settlers made their new home.
“It’s a beginning of a civilization and a society, a civilization that just boomed,” Kelso said. “It’s the pebble that hits the pond.”
People thought Kelso was a little crazy when he began his search. He prefers the term “skeptical.”
For nearly 200 years, historians thought the James River washed away the first English settlement. Kelso wasn’t so sure. According to one account, the broken red-bricked church, the only standing structure left from the early settlement, was said to have sat in the middle of the fort. Yet it remained 40 yards off the banks of the James River.
So, in 1994, Kelso fought his way through the woods and vegetation that had hid the church and, alone with his shovel, began to turn the soil. Within weeks, he discovered a black streak in the ground, what he correctly believed was a wooden wall of the triangular fort.
He knew then he was right. This was James Fort.
But Kelso and his crew wouldn’t make his discovery known to the world until they were scientifically certain, nearly two years later.
Danny Schmidt was a 16-year-old volunteer during the early days of the dig, and became hooked his first day after discovering a human tooth with a cavity in it. Schmidt got a master’s degree at the University of London, but returned to Jamestown.
“We’re basically rewriting history,” Schmidt said. “It keeps getting better every day. We’re kind of spoiled.”
Today, James Fort still retains much of its structure, including palisade walls, buildings, several pits and more than 500,000 objects, most dating to the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James, including an ivory compass, a load Scottish pistol, cabasset helmets and breast plates. Kelso said the dig is nearly 50 percent complete.
This week, Kelso showed England’s Queen Elizabeth II his archeological site. The queen displayed only polite interest in Kelso’s dig until he took her to the fort’s center. He pointed to the spot and explained this was the beginning of the British Commonwealth that, along with colonies in India, allowed the English to boast that “the sun never set on the British Empire.”
The queen gave a knowing smile, Kelso said, like a light turning on.
