Jamestown is at the heart of any teaching and learning of colonial American history. Stories of John Smith and Pocahontas are learned by elementary and secondary students across the United States. In Virginia, Jamestown is first taught in third grade and revisited five more times from historical, political, economic, and geographic perspectives. However, the history of Jamestown is taught principally as a place, a series of events, and people from long ago with little consideration of its place in the world today. The reality is that Jamestown Island, the location of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, is today part of a thriving metropolitan area of approximately 1.7 million people. By examining a local policy issue such as plans to build power transmission lines across the James River in Virginia, students can investigate significant questions related to urban sprawl and the environment.