America's First Frontier | Martin's Station | 2024 Living History Event Tour | Colonial America
Today we’re traveling to Ewing, Virginia to visit Martin’s Station, the last stop before American Colonists would cross the Cumberland Gap, searching for a fresh start.
Historic Martin’s Station hosts events year-round but this event, in particular, is called “Virginia; America's First Frontier” recognizing and remembering the men women and children that were dedicated to heading west deep into a harsh Wilderness looking for a new start for their families. “Virginia;America's First Frontier” is a multi-day ongoing living history event that allows you to experience the Western frontier like never before Joseph Martin station comes to life with hundreds of the nation's best-living historians Artists Craftsmen and demonstrators America's first Frontier hosted and coordinated by the Wilderness Road State Park and sponsored by the Friends of the Wilderness Road State Park.
While the station and the environment itself is absolutely all inspiring You could argue that the best part of this event here at Martin station are the educational seminars running from 10 till dusk each day about a dozen seminars are presented with a variety of topics from improving your impression coffee in early America the expose of the 18th century Woodsman essential Implements of the Virginia farmer surveying the frontier and many more I'm looking at the list right now and I really could have spent the entire weekend at seminars and a few of them I wish there were clones of me so I could attend each and every one of them.
If I had one critique of the event, it’d be that several hours throughout the weekend there are seminars that I would like to go to happening at the same time. That's a good problem to have.
I even got the opportunity to participate in a mob that burned an effigy of King George in classic late 18 century Virginia style.
If you couldn't occupy your time enough with the setting and the seminars you could travel through the suler row where you could talk with traditional artists Crafts People and vendors about their wares and equip yourself to experience the 18th century on your own.
While the setting and education at Martin’s Station is wonderful, I think it does pale in comparison to the people, friendships, and community present there. This was my wife's second event on the road actually camping and experiencing event and again she was blown away by the friendship and camaraderie at these events. As a young family out in the middle of nowhere we can feel a little bit listless from time to time. Our small town has some community events but getting out and experiencing an event like this and hanging out with so many like-minded individuals really brings a warmth to us. There's real connections to be had at an event like this you can connect with Friends new and old and build bonds that I think will last a lifetime.
Events and sites like historic Martin station here are vital to the continuation of that community and I think American culture itself. There's been a lot of discussion lately about living history events and their sustainability attendance many events is shrinking participation is waning as we're going through a generational shift as we say goodbye to many of our loved ones and friends as they pass on to the next life from the outside it can look like these events are just camping with extra steps but it's hard to articulate the feeling and the importance of being at an event like this regardless of if you're just in a a city or town park where you're on in moan grass and you're in your 18th century clothes or if you're in a historic site like Martin station where you're surrounded by what the 18th century could have looked like and in many parts did look like there's a blood memory almost of experiencing this that is hard to describe and and I'm trying to articulate this and I'm continuing to work on articulating this so I don't sound like a crazy person because it's more than camping it's more than cooking over a fire it's more than the funny clothes there's something there that you can ask any person participating at a living history event and they say there's something more to it but we've got to find a way to articulate this and I'm I'm sharing this question with you because I want to see these events grow I want to see them expand and I want to see more people at these events enjoying this and connecting with the people places in history because it's vitally important for us I think now almost more than ever so as you're watching this maybe pause and think about that some what makes this important and how can we get more people involved how do you describe to a stranger on the street what living history is and why it's important and what can we say to convince more people to get involved and getting involved doesn't mean traveling 20 hours to an event like this it can be just as simple as doing it in your backyard doing research at your local library or listening to a podcast where you're learning more about the history of the folks that came before participation is varied the these days and many people participate in a way that's comfortable for them but we'd like to see more as always so think about that and let me know what you think in the comments or shoot me an email or talk to me about it at an event I think 95% of the conversations I had at Martin’s Station were about that very thing, how can we get more people involved in history? And how do we share and spread this passion that we have to the public and get more people involved?
The dates are already set for 2025 May 9th through 11th attend the Wilderness Road State Park, Virginia: America's First Frontier event.
I'm planning on being there with my family once again we had a wonderful time I can't thank the park staff and the volunteers enough for all the hard work they put into this event we had a wonderful first time and can't wait to attend again