Jamestown - Hurricane Isabel covered 500,000 artifacts dating back to the 1600s with 5 feet of brackish flood water.

Jamestown is the site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, and state, local and federal officials hope to make the 2007 quadricentennial an event of international importance.

The park service runs Jamestown Island in partnership with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, which has amassed its own collection of about 600,000 artifacts during a decade-long archaeology project that discovered, on association property, the remains of the original, 1607 James Fort.

Teams of curators, archaeologists, lab technicians and commercial-disaster experts battled rust, mold and moisture to preserve a priceless national treasure.

Stuart & Prior provided the desiccant dehumidification for buildings dating back to the 1600's.