Historic Jamestowne is the actual site of the first permanent British settlement in North America. The site is owned and managed through a private/public partnership between Preservation Virginia and the National Park Service. It is located behind Jamestown Settlement, which is operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological project, spearheaded by Bill Kelso, was launched in 1994 to find the site of the earliest fortified town on the Jamestown island. Since this groundbreaking discovery, Preservation Virginia’s talented team of archaeologists have been doing great work to excavate, interpret, preserve, conserve and research the site’s findings to piece together the lives of Jamestown’s first colonists.