Author Archive for: editor
Entries by Gretchen Cope
Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Interpretive Center in Duffield, VA NOW OPEN!
The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Interpretive Center, a satellite location of Natural Tunnel State Park, is now open! The facility is open from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Friday through Monday. Also, watch our website for updates regarding upcoming programs and events.
Frontier Harvest Festival – 10/27/2018
The Frontier Harvest Festival will be held on October 27 from 1-5 p.m. at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse at Natural Tunnel State Park. This is a family-friendly event and there is no entrance fee. Click here for the flyer.
Blockhouse Open on Weekends
The Wilderness Road Blockhouse at Natural Tunnel State Park is now open from 2-4 pm every Friday and Saturday. Interpreters will be available to provide demonstrations, talks on the Blockhouse and history of the area, and hands-on activities. *Please note that several factors can affect the programming being offered and can therefor vary from […]
Frontier Muster and Trade Faire – THIS WEEKEND
This is a free, family-friendly event that depicts daily life on the frontier during the late 18th century. Parking fees will still apply and dogs must be kept on a leash. For more information please call the Natural Tunnel State Park Office at 276-940-2674.
Frontier Muster and Trade Faire – April 28 & 29, 2018
Our annual Frontier Muster and Trade Faire will be held the last weekend in April, the 28 and 29. Please stay tuned for updates and information!
Old Christmas at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse – CANCELLED
Unfortunately, due to frigid temperatures, we have decided to cancel the Old Christmas celebration.
Demonstrations at the Harvest Festival
Demonstrations at the Festival will include, but not be limited to, fire-starting, flax-processing, blacksmithing, cooking, spinning, black-powder presentations, and frontier games. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity!
About the book: The Blockhouse On The Holston
The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association has published a history of the Blockhouse that was built in 1775 on the North Fork of the Holston by John Anderson. His fortified home became a landmark along the road west, the Wilderness Road, marked by Daniel Boone that same year. Over the next thirty years, some 300,000 people passed Anderson’s home on their journey through Cumberland Gap and on into what would become the state of Kentucky, and further westward.
William L. Anderson, a direct descendant of John, has written a well-researched book that tells the story, the history of the home that became known to posterity as “The Blockhouse,” and its part in the expansion westward of our new nation. The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association is proud to offer this book that tells, for the first time in such detail, the very significant part played in our nation’s history by the pioneer settlers of the western frontier during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
Also included in the book are many brief biographies of significant players in the story, maps, an article on Fort Blackmore, and the diary of early explorer Dr. Thomas Walker.
The book may be purchased for $19.95 at Natural Tunnel State Park at the Visitor’s Center and at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse Interpretive Center (276-940-2674) and at the law offices of Lisa Ann McConnell in Duffield. Or contact Robert E. McConnell at roberte@mounet.com or 276-452-4520