Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Amy's Extraordinary Alabama: Frontier Days at Fort Toulouse

By Amy


If you've never been to Fort Toulouse/Fort Jackson for Frontier Days it is an experience worth the trip to Wetumpka. The reenactors stay in character and make it such an educational experience. You can click here for more information on the Frontier Days this year happening November 3-7.

First the canon at Ft. Toulouse. They do fire it. It's interesting to observe, but loud.

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Within Ft Toulouse they have barracks where the reenactors sleep during the frontier days. They also have ladies cooking and baking. The bread of course caught my eye.


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DS being all boy, pretending he is in a battle.


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The French flag in Ft. Toulouse.


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Of course DS was attracted to the firearms. :)


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The reenactors come out to do a drill.


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The Native Americans doing a stomp dance in their historical dress. Some have turtle shells they have made into leg wraps to make music as they dance.


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One of my favorite instruments - the hammered dulcimer. It makes such beautiful music.


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Ladies participating in the frontier days weave yarn and dye it with natural elements native to the area. I love the blue yarn.
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A sleeping tent for one of the Native Americans.


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Ft. Toulouse and Ft. Jackson are located on the Coosa River.


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Of course there were people in an area selling wares. These are some of the turtle shells with beans or something in them like the Native Americans used in the Stomp Dance.


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The colorfulness of the rock candy caught my eye.


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Puppets tied to her knee. She made them move by moving her leg around. Very interesting. She said these were predecessors of the marionettes.


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Tents over on the Ft. Jackson side.


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This guy was quite entertaining. He was really into his character and I love how I caught the smoke when he shot the rifle. It was very loud, too.


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I can't remember who this guy was portraying, but they were really into their characters.


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Again, what is it with boys and canons?


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Loved the red wagon.


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Saw this in the beat up road between the two areas. I don't really like hearts, but I couldn't help to snap a photo of it.


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Food over in the Native American camp. Last year I was there early enough to see them actually skinning a deer. Kind of gross, but very interesting when you understand that's what they had to do to live and how none of it went to waste. They would trade the skins for anything they needed.


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There were a few Englishmen near the French encampment.


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So there you have it. Our little field trip in photos. If you have a chance you should definitely take your kiddos.

3 comments:

STILLMAGNOLIA said...

My good friend Ricky Causey plays hammered dulcimer there during Frontier days...and his daughter Hannah plays the fiddle. They may have missed this year since daughter Holly is getting married soon. He is wonderful on his dulcimer. I could listen to him for hours. Thanks for sharing the wonderful photo journal. Coming to you from Alabama Bloggers.

Janet said...

I took my children to this back in the late 90s,and it was so much fun, not to mention educational! Great photos of the event.

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