YORKTOWN — Colonial National Historical Park invites visitors to celebrate a fee-free Independence Day on July 4 in historic Yorktown, where American and French troops defeated the British in the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War.
While normally an entrance pass is required to visit Yorktown Battlefield, Jamestown Island, and the recreational stops along the Colonial Parkway that make up Colonial National Historical Park, entrance fees are being waived on July 4.
“While collecting fees are incredibly important for maintaining the park and providing visitor services, this year we also want to have a fee-free day to recognize Independence Day with our community and partners,” said Superintendent Jerri Marr.
Colonial National Historical Park is partnering with York County to provide activities throughout the day, including a parade through town in the morning, self-guided tours of the Nelson House in the afternoon, and fireworks in the evening.
More information and weather-related event updates can be found at VisitYorktown.org.
Colonial National Historical Park notes the entrance fees are an important source of revenue in national parks to improve the visitor experience, including recreational opportunities.
Recreation fees help the park fund important work and projects, it said, including supporting the York River shoreline stabilization project along the Colonial Parkway, the restoration of cultural landscapes within the park, repair work of historic cannon carriages, and painting and restoring picket fences in historic Yorktown.
Funding is also used for visitor safety, it added, including providing additional traffic safety patrol and signage where needed. To purchase a park pass, visit recreation.gov.
Colonial National Historical Park administers Jamestown Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1607, which is jointly administered with Preservation Virginia, and Yorktown Battlefield, the final major battle of the American Revolutionary War in 1781. The sites are connected by the 23-mile scenic Colonial Parkway.
Colonial NHP also includes Green Spring, the 17th-century plantation home of Virginia’s colonial governor, Sir William Berkeley, and the Cape Henry Memorial, which marks the approximate site of the first landing of the Jamestown colonists on the Atlantic Coast in April of 1607.
To learn more about the park, visit nps.gov/colo.
