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Blockhouse to Host Harvest Celebration

From staff reports

In harvest time, harvest-folk, servants and all, should make altogether good cheer in the hall. - Thomas Tusser, "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry: August's Husbandry"

A special celebration is planned for this Saturday in a re-creation of a days gone past tradition.

At the end of the year's harvest, friends and neighbors came to together to celebrate their bounty and good fortune. It was a time for good spirits, sharing and musical entertainment.

The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association, in cooperation with Natural Tunnel State Park, presents the eighth annual Harvest Celebration at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 1 to 5 p.m.

The public is invited to join the John Anderson family, their neighbors and friends for a afternoon glimpse of life on the Virginia frontier in the 18th century. Visitors have the opportunity to tour the fortified home of the Andersons and to see re-enactors in period attire performing daily tasks such as soap making, candle dipping, dyeing, baking, cooking, salt making, flax breaking, spinning and weaving.

Period music will be performed along with dancing of the Virginia Reel.

The Wilderness Road Blockhouse is a replica of the fortified frontier home that John Anderson built in 1775 near the North Fork of the Holston River.

Very few folks of European descent resided at that time in what is now Scott County. There were many conflicts between the frontiersmen and the Native Americans. Anderson built his "blockhouse" because he needed a home that was secure and could be easily defended against attacks.

The blockhouse, which was located on the Wilderness Trail, became an important part of the history of the United States. From Anderson's fortified home, settlers waited until enough people had gathered together to begin the perilous journey to the Cumberland Gap and the west.

According to the Virginia Tourism Corporation, it is estimated that 300,000 persons traveled the trail

toward their dreams in westward expansion.

Harvest marked a time of the year, for both the Native Americans and the settlers, when a period of peace usually existed during winter months. Folks also celebrated the bountiful harvest of crops which allowed them to eat through the coming winter season.

For more information about the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association and its events, visit http://www.danielboonetrail.com and click on "Living History Events."