A trip to Boonesborough

My kids had great fun using the apple smasher (apparently one of the most important activities of the first white settlers west of the Appalachians was making cider and getting lit up)...

This was in the center of the fort, it was the powder keg/artillery.


Daniel Boone's fort is recreated in full, along with re-enactors, in the Fort Boonesborough State Park in Richmond, KY. It's about an hour's drive, give or take a little depending on what side of Cincinnati you are starting from.

It's $5/person (age 6 and up), and is well worth it. The re-enactors we saw were demonstrating how to cook on an open fire. Apparently there will be many many re-enactors after April 1 when the fort officially opens for the season. From the way the place is set up, it looks like there will be a Blacksmith, a basket weaver, someone carding wool and spinning it into thread (is there a name for that person?), a carpet weaver on a full loom, and much more.

For my husband and myself, the highlight of the place was in the authentic settler gift shop. They had hand-made period pieces such as wooden bowls and glasses, silverware made out of antlers, clothing from the period, flint stones with the iron for making a fire, and whatever that thing is called that they used to melt lead in and then pour it into molds for making bullets!