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'Living history' event planned at Fort Toulouse/Jackson

By Peggy Blackburn
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The population of Wetumpka will increase dramatically for a few days next week as visitors from around Alabama and neighboring states flock to Fort Toulouse/Jackson Park for the 13th annual Alabama Frontier Days event.

“More than 9,000 students and adults have already preregistered for Wednesday through Friday,” said Greg Rhinehart, the park’s program and education coordinator. “We’ll also have some walk-ins on those days, and if the weather’s nice we’ll have 3,000 to 5,000 here Saturday.”

Visitors to the park will be transported back in time, as re-enactors bring to life the days when Alabama was the western frontier of the United States. The reconstructed forts, Indian camps and blacksmith shop nestled among the pines and moss-draped oaks set the stage for the portrayals.

Re-enactors hail from around the country, and will depict soldiers, Indian warriors, settlers, craftsmen and entertainers.

The popular Native American “stomp dancers” will return this year, and there will be a variety of demonstrations.

Re-enactments are set in the years immediately before construction of the first fort at the site, and continuing through the building and occupation of the three different forts that existed there.

The authentically-garbed participants will bring to life the culture of the area as it changed from Creek Indian lands to soldiers’ forts and settlers’ homesteads during the period of 1700 to 1820.

The three forts were built inside the present-day park area during that era �” two by the French (Fort Toulouse, 1717-1763), and one by the English (Fort Jackson, 1814-1819).

Fort Toulouse was a permanent French outpost north of Mobile, and a strategic point in the South during the French and British struggle for North America lands.

Fort Jackson was constructed during the Creek War campaign of the War of 1812 on the old site of Fort Toulouse. Building began only three weeks after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and it was at the new fort that the Treaty of Fort Jackson was signed on August 9, 1814 to end the Creek War.

According to the treaty, the Creeks ceded 20 million acres to the United States government, opening most of what is now Alabama to settlers.

Various demonstrations and period entertainment will include:

Native American

•Hide tanning

•Creek Indian hunting camp

•Stomp dancers

•Flint knapping

•Storytelling and songs

•Archery and blowguns

•Village life and foodways

Colonial/Early American

•Spinning, weaving and dying

•Blacksmithing

•Firing of flintlock muskets and cannon

•War of 1812 encampment

•Fort Toulouse Colonial Marines

•Flint and steel fire

Period Entertainment

•Strolling balladeers

•Magician

•Jugglers

•Period music

•Dulcimer, fife and bagpipes

•Period suttlers

•Modern and period food vendors

Frontier Days will begin Nov. 5 and continue through Nov. 9. Presentations will be ongoing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Admission is $6 for students and $7 for adults. Children under six are admitted free.

For information, call 567-3002 or email ftedu1@bellsouth.net.

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