Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, a small queue had formed at the Colonial Parkway entrance to Historic Jamestowne, comprising Preservation Virginia staff and archaeologists. Two cars with visitors sat waiting to enter, hoping the federal government shutdown wouldn’t continue to bar them access to the site.
On Tuesday, Preservation Virginia sent out notices on the Historic Jamestowne website and on Twitter letting people know it would try to reopen its portion of Historic Jamestowne.
Preservation Virginia owns 22.5 acres of land at Historic Jamestowne, which includes the archaeological site where the original James Fort was constructed and the 17th-century Jamestown Church Tower, as well as the Nathalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium. That land has been barred from the public’s access since Oct. 1, resulting in about a $60,000 loss in ticket and retail sales and donations so far.
“This time of year is a very good visitation season,” Director of Preservation Services Louis Malon said.
Each day visitors don’t spend money at Historic Jamestowne, Preservation Virginia loses about $6,000 to $7,000, he said.
Malon said he is worried about the out-of-town visitors being turned away, as they may not be able to come back when it does reopen. In April, using a ZIP code tracking mechanism, Historic Jamestowne clocked visitors from 48 states; the area commonly sees visitors from all 50 states in a month’s time.
The Colonial National Park Service is responsible for denying visitors access to Preservation Virginia’s land, which is located off the now closed Colonial Parkway and is adjacent to the park service-owned 1,500 acres of land.
While a park ranger was stationed just inside a barricade preventing access to Historic Jamestowne and Preservation Virginia’s land, it was Preservation Virginia employees taking responsibility for turning people away.
“Our complaint is not with Colonial National … our complaint is with the federal process,” Malon said, emphasizing there is no issue between the park service and Preservation Virginia.
As staff members walked up to vehicles attempting to access Historic Jamestowne, many of those were out-of-state visitors from Indiana, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom.
“Thank you for letting us know, we’ll go back to Florida now,” said one visitor. At first, he wasn’t sure if the closure was due to rain or the government shutdown.
The park ranger stationed at the Historic Jamestowne said he could not provide comment, but said he is considered “essential personnel.”
Preservation Virginia Executive Director Elizabeth Kostelny was on site watching visitors turn around and leave the area.
“We’re mostly disappointed because we have to say no to people who are coming from the region,” she said, explaining Preservation Virginia will continue to push all avenues to allow visitors access to the organization’s private property.
In addition to the funding that’s lost from turning away visitors, employees have been dismissed from their jobs with no guarantee of back pay when they return to work once the area reopens to visitors. The approximately 20 staff members responsible for ticket and retail sales, desk operations and leading tours are not needed to man their posts at an attraction unable to serve visitors.
“These are real people right here in the Williamsburg community who have lost their jobs,” Malon said.
