I have entries about Fort Atkinson before, its handsome restoration at Fort Calhoun just north of Omaha, the site of many firsts for Nebraska and the West, as well as the actual meeting place between Lewis & Clark and the Native Americans. Our Fourth this year was gloomy and threatening, but Sunday was as beautiful as these photos tell, and I spent a happy three hours wandering around to see the re-enactors and the furnished areas. The wide, narrow gunslit windows ruined my camera settings, so I deleted several pictures because I used Inside rather than Available Light setting--well, you'll understand. The fort replaced a military campsite (actually the meeting area for L&C) on the Missouri River bank; the river is now about five miles to the east, but the fourth side of the fort square has never been completed, because the bank is still considered unstable. Besides, the trees are more scenic.
At the left below is the cabin for the tinsmith and blacksmiths. At the right is a long view in front of their cabin toward the garden and the L&C council cabin.
Many of the residents make their own costumes, as the tinsmith did. He said they had to be very careful because it was such a short period before major changes in military uniforms so they had to not look like the French and Indian War, the Mexican War, etc. He also said their outfits were more comfortable than our store-bought clothes because they were tailored. I asked him where he got his tin; he said Britain mainly, which surprised me, because that's why Rome conquered Britain, for its tin, and he agreed and said they were still mining it, though Mexico was a more common source now. The photo of the blacksmith trio is one slightly confused by another light source, the forge fire. I grew up with a blacksmith a block away, so they were nostalgia.
I'm very happy with the following set. Once an anvil was set on another anvil and blown into the sky in an early version of noisy fireworks. But that's too hazardous, and so this modern version the blacksmith called Boomer involves two hollow rings filled with gunpowder on which is set a 12# ball like a shotput. A lady asked why, and he and I laughed (not meanly), because Boys Like Noise, of course, the point of many fireworks. It was very loud. If you look closely, above the smoke are the ball and one ring in mid-air.
A deer had spoiled some of the garden a few nights before. We plant many of the same, including potatoes, tomatoes, rhubarb, onions, several herbs. As shown in the one photo, the Council Cabin is the northernmost structure (and the Visitors Center is not far beyond it). The ramp is not authentic but mandated by presentday law, I'd guess.
The woman at the left is making bobbin lace, a dizzying process of rolling several thread-wound bobbins back and forth to create delicately beautiful lace pinned in place. The spinner showed us her soft wool socks she had just spun and made for hiking.
The following set illustrate the light problems for photography caused by the gunslit windows (which, otherwise, seem immensely practical). At the left is the carpenter, holding a wooden compass he made. While he's made several of his tools as well as saw horses and tables, he goes as far as the Southwest and Mexico to auctions and flea sales for his huge collection of tools. The weavers were eating their lunch in another room.
Obviously, the small rugs were for sale, and the sutler's store was full of souvenirs, from candy to the quill pens in the foreground.
I cannot imagine living in such cramped quarters. Below are a family room and a soldiers' quarters.
Punishment must have been very harsh. Seen through glass are, left, the main brig with my reflection, below, two solitary confinement cells which didn't allow standing up. Also there were the stocks from Puritan New England days and a special kind of torture device at the right of the stocks, a slanted wooden box not allowing the offender to either crouch or stand.
They had a finale before the ice cream social, a complete reading of the Declaration of Independence, properly so, with two alternating units of muskets then firing volleys for each of the signatory 13 original states, punctuated by the firings of the two large cannons, the loudest booms of all. Then a little parade off.
A fine way to celebrate the Declaration of Independence and probably the world's most successful Revolution. Aunt Myrtle would've loved it.
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