Encampment stokes burning interest in state’s history

MOUNT MAGAZINE STATE PARK - Don Simons can start a fire the old-fashioned way, with a piece of steel and an arrowhead made of flint.

Striking the two together to make a spark is the easy part.

“The hard part is catching the spark,” he said, gathering a fistful of charred cotton and flax fibers. Simons shaped the airy fibers into a small nest, then struck the steel and flint in its center. A tiny spark flickered and, within seconds, the fibers blazed.

The demonstration by Simons, park interpreter at Mount Magazine State Park, was one of many Saturday that showcased the survival skills of Arkansas’ early explorers and settlers. The Historic Encampment at Mount Magazine State Park is an annual event.

Mount Magazine, about 17 miles southeast of Paris in Logan County, is the highest point in Arkansas at 2,753 feet.

Simons and about a dozen “living historian” volunteers dressed as historic figures and worked in white canvastents to teach 19th-century survival skills to 21st-century visitors. Men and women cooked over open fires, worked with wood, copperand tin, and spun yarn and wove cloth. They also demonstrated fire-making, blacksmithing and hide-tanning techniques.

“We’ve learned a lot,” said Missy Baker of Cabot, who with her husband, Peter, was staying in Mount Magazine’s lodge when they heard aboutthe encampment and went for a look.

She expressed interest in getting a firepit for their backyard at home so they could cook outdoors like the living historians, using Dutch ovens.

Tammy White of Bentonville, along with her husband, Robert, has been taking part in demonstrations like theone at Mount Magazine for 27 years.

The couple went to their first such event in Kansas and“got bitten by the bug,” she said. “I realized I like history. I like camping. So you do living history.”

Tammy White, who demonstrated knitting, cooking and other skills, said her family volunteers at six to 12such events a year. The couple arrived Friday night and planned to leave today.

“You hope you teach somebody real history and an old trade,” she said. “If you learn an old craft, you’re a little more self-sufficient.”

She nodded toward fellow living historian Tom Walker of Damascus, a woodworker. “You give him a piece of wood, and by the end of the day you have a bowl for your food and a spoon or fork to eat it with.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 09/30/2012

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