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Feature article
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Wilderness Road's season of pioneering
By Staff report
ELYDALE - Wilderness Road State Park has planned a variety of special summer programs, which get under way next week with the Junior Pioneers program. Most of the free programs are centered around the re-created Martin's Station.
Preregistration for the Junior Pioneers program - for children ages 6 to 12 - is now being conducted. The free program, which runs Monday through Wednesday, aims to give children a hands-on education about life on Virginia's 1775 frontier.
Frontier Farming teaches children the use of 18th century farming tools. Participants will be able to plant corn and learn about frontier foods. By Hand and Hammer explains how blacksmiths made tools for use by frontier settlers as well as how they made fuel for their shops. Children will create charcoal drawings as part of their learning experience.
On Tuesday, the program features Call to Arms and The Long Hunt. Call to Arms highlights the role of the frontier militia in the protection of Martin's Station and other sites valuable to settlers. Participants will learn how the militia was formed, marched, drilled and how it protected the frontier. Junior Pioneers will march and drill in a militia formation.
The Long Hung showcases the role of long hunters in Colonial Virginia and how deer hides played a role in frontier economics. Children will be able to handle deer, bear and buffalo hides.
Wednesday's activities include Frontier Games, in which the young historians will learn the games that prepared children for life on the frontier. They will all participate in authentic 18th century games.
The Indians on the Frontier program will teach how Native Americans and settlers co-existed on the frontier. There will be an awards ceremony following this program Wednesday.
Other special programs at the fort during this summer's interpretive season will allow park visitors to see, smell, taste and touch frontier history.
They include a June 12-13 program on Henderson's Grand Scheme and the Transylvania Company. Costumed re-enactors will tell the story of how Richard Henderson, a prominent land speculator from North Carolina, hires Joseph Martin to assist in his schemes to settle the Powell Valley.
On June 26 and 27, a program will detail how the Cherokee dominated southeast America and the ways the natives and European settlers came to rely on one another for a lively and prosperous trade.
The July 3 and 4 weekend will allow visitors to join Capt. Joseph Martin as he prepares to fight for Virginia's liberty. Re-enactors will describe the fear of 1776 in Virginia's backwoods when rumors of a British invasion are strengthened by Cherokee, armed with British muskets, attacking the Holston River settlements.
The Fire in the Night program, at 9 p.m. July 10, will allow visitors to sit by the fire and listen to stories of danger, courage and adventure on the frontier.
Programs July 17 and 18 afford visitors the opportunity to meet a frontier gunsmith and learn the secrets of his craft. They will also learn how the long rifle was an essential tool for protection and sustenance in the 18th century wilderness.
Other programs are scheduled for August, September and November. All special programs begin at 1 and 3 p.m. at the fort gate. The park grounds are open from 8 a.m. until dark.
For more information on these and other programs contact the park at (276)445-3065. The park is located on Route 58 between Ewing and Cumberland Gap.
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