Photography workshop with Diane Watts Copas

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11155146_10204887200112774_240585033255865043_oi-cR4bdBg-X2As part of the Mountains of Music cultural events schedule, The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association will be sponsoring a photography “Trail Talk” on Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. entitled “How to Get the Most Out of Your Digital Camera.” This hands-on workshop will be held at the Blockhouse Visitor Center at Natural Tunnel State Park and will be led by Diane Watts Copas, well-known regional photographer and long-time friend of the Wilderness Trail Association. Whether you take pictures with an expensive SLR camera or on your handy cell phone, Ms. Copas will be offering tips and techniques on how to improve your picture-taking skills. The workshop will begin at 10 a.m. with a short lecture and demonstration, and then the participants will move around the park together to consider various lighting and framing situations. This is a great opportunity to learn how to turn simple vacation pictures into family treasures.

This “Trail Talk” is free and is open to the public. We do need to know how many to expect, however, so please make a reservation before June 18 by calling Gretchen at 276-940-2696 or Megan at 276-940-1643

Mountains of Music Homecoming

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22823_10205169022322626_895614914391802623_nIn conjunction with the Crooked Road’s Mountains of Music Homecoming the Anderson Blockhouse will be open to visitors on the following dates and times:

June 12th from 10-1pm
June 13th from 2-4pm
June 14th from 2-4pm
June 15th from 10-4pm
June 16th 19326_10205169042683135_9122956037227166903_nfrom 10-4pm
June 17th from 10-4pm
June 18th from 10-4pm
June 19th from 2-4pm
June 20th from 2-4pm

For more information on the Mountains of Music Homecoming visit their website.

The Virginia Project

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Virginia ProjectThe Friends of Wilderness Road State Park are selling raffle tickets for various handmade accouterments with proceeds to go toward the construction of a Native American Camp at the park. For those of you interested in purchasing tickets you can do so at The Wilderness Road State Park Visitor Center.

The Anderson Blockhouse

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The Anders22823_10205169022322626_895614914391802623_non Blockhouse will be open to visitors on Saturdays and Sundays from 2-4pm beginning in May as well as for special events. Stop by and learn about the Anderson Family and the Blockhouse and the roll it played on the Frontier. Also discover what life was like on the Frontier in the late 18the Century.

Spring Muster and Trade Fair at the Blockhouse! Saturday, April 18 from 10 until after the campfire on Saturday night; Sunday, April 19 from 11 to 3. Bring the whole family!

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The Swimmer family is preparing for their trip over to the Blockhouse from Cherokee. Micah will be offering a Cherokee language workshop on Saturday at 1:00, and he and Ogana will be teaching visitors how to play stickball off and on all day.

Blacksmithing on the Frontier – Demonstrations at the Frontier Muster & Trade Faire

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markIt’s almost time for our annual Spring Muster and Trade Faire, April 18 and 19, at the Blockhouse, Natural Tunnel State Park. Bring the family and come on out.

Blacksmithing was an essential skill on the frontier. Every nail was made by hand. Every horse had to be shod. Every hinge, tool, and knife blade was produced at the forge. Come out and meet our expert blacksmith, Mark Ramsey, and watch him work. He’ll be glad to answer your questions and explain what he is doing.

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We are really geared up for the annual Spring Muster and Trade Faire on April 18 and 19 at the Blockhouse. Our friend Charlie Brown will have his longhunter camp set up again this year and will be ready to demonstrate essential frontier survival skills such as hide tanning and leather work. He will also have beautiful handmade leather items for sale.

Charlie3Charlie2Charlie

Frontier Muster and Trade Fair

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Ron kneeling by fireThe Frontier Muster and Trade Fair

at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse

at Natural Tunnel State Park

April 18 & 19, 2015

Click here to view the flyer.

 

Boone Trace 1775

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Please note that we have added a new button to our About page entitled 1775 Boone Trace. Our friend and DBWTA member, Randell Jones has been working on this interactive map for several months and has offered its use to groups who are working up and down the Boone Historic Corridor to preserve the original pathway that Boone blazed in 1775. We appreciate the opportunity to support Randell’s work and to offer this interactive map for our readers’ use.
Randell is a highly acclaimed author, lecturer, and storyteller from North Carolina. Linking to the map will not only give you a sense of Boone’s movements between the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina to Fort Boonesborough in Kentucky, it will also give you access to extensive information about Randell’s many books dealing with the early frontier in North Carolina, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and beyond as the Westward Movement progressed. We know you will enjoy learning about his many publications, and we appreciate being able to offer our readers access to this excellent interactive map.

Please follow the link below to take the tour.

Button for link to Boone Trace 1775

Lost in the Wander

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Beginning on March 10, Curtis Penix, an avid hiker from Monroe, Michigan plans to walk in the footsteps of his 5X great grandfather, Joshua Penix, who arrived at Fort Boonesborough in 1779. Curtis plans a 16-day hike along Boone Trace, as did his grandfather, beginning at Kingsport, TN on March 10 and terminating at Fort Boonesborough March 26.

He will walk the entire route, carry his own food and sleep under the stars. Others have traveled the general route of the Trace; but, Penix will hike the Trace using the primitive trails as much as possible. The Boone Trace was the first road ever blazed into Kentucky.

Penix says “I thought it would be interesting to travel the road my ancestor had traveled. Even though this road helped to carry 300,000 pioneers into the land we now know as Kentucky, it does not exist today as a singular route. Much of the old path has been paved

over as residential streets or 2 lane highway. The portions which followed creeks were abandoned for wider roadways and left to grow over. Much has been tilled under for agriculture. Most of the original Boone Trace has been lost the way an artist would paint over the original painting on a canvas. In order to walk with Joshua, I need to peel back the layers of new paint to reveal the original masterpiece that Boone and his men created.”

You can follow the progress of Curtis Penix through his website, facebook and twitter feeds. To get to his website just follow the link below.

Button for Lost in the Wander