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15th Annual

Women on the Frontier at Fort Boonesborough

April 13 - 14, 2019

Photos by Kathy Cummings
 

“Frontier Agriculture & More”

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Sing while you work

Women on the Frontier has always been a learning event for women re-enactors and their families but also draws visitors to learn and watch the women as they try their hands at new frontier skills.

Here visitors learn and listen. As the women churned butter they sang in time to the churning. According to fort interpreter Emily Burns there was a song for everything. It made the time go faster while doing repetitive events and also lightened the spirits of the settlers that worked almost non stop through their days.

Songs like “pop go the weasel” sung by children today refers to a spinners weasel. A weasel consists of a wheel which is revolved by the spinner in order to measure off thread or yarn after it has been produced on the spinning wheel. The weasel is usually built so that the circumference is six feet, so that 40 revolutions produces 80 yards of yarn, which is a skein. It has wooden gears inside and a cam, designed to cause a popping sound after the 40th revolution, telling the spinner that she has completed the skein.

Building a Sled for Hauling

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For settlers clearing land to plant crops, removing timber and rock was an ongoing process as was girding trees. The sled at left was built by demonstrator Jerry Hicks who conducted this session. At right is re-enactor Bev Simpson who built another type sled and even tested it’s weight limit to the delight of the women by hauling one of the woman participants.

Keeping Chickens

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Cows and their Gifts

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“Hands-on for chickens meant real chickens pecking around the fort. Cows on the other hand meant the presence of “Charlotte the milking cow” a cow used at the fort for those wishing to learn how to milk. Being a state park, a live cow is not possible but Charlotte is always a welcome visitor.

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The Fort Boonesborough Foundation was on hand selling concessions, tshirts and displaying the new rifle (and bag horn and strap) for the Foundation Fundraiser. Click here to learn more about this 2019 fundraiser.

Faces and fun from Women on the Frontier 2019

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Special thanks to Kriti Heasley, Emily Burns and Bill Farmer for planning this event.

Photos from other Years at Women on the Frontier

Link to the Fort Boonesborough Living History Web Site

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