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Festival brought many eras of history to life in Marietta

By Brett Dunlap 6 min read

MARIETTA - Many areas of history were the topics over the weekend at the America 250th Festival of Living History in Marietta.

Historical re-enactors came together at Muskingum Park on Front Street at the invitation of the Frontiersman’s Friend Foundation to commemorate local history and celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Groups participating included the Frontiersman’s Friend Foundation, the First Ohio Light Artillery Battery K civil war re-enactors, the Marietta Chapters of the Sons/Daughters of the American Revolution, the Athens County Chapter of the Sons of Liberty and others covering the area's founding, the American Revolutionery period and the area's Civil War history. About 50 people from the different groups did demonstrations, sold wares and more.

The festival included historical craft demonstrations, weaponry, firepower with musket and cannon firing demonstrations period camps, gear, period demonstrations and educational demonstrations showcasing early American pioneer life for all ages, among others.

"What I hope everyone takes away from this event is a sense of community," organizer Rick Dostal said.

Dostal, who serves on the Washington County America 250 committee, said he wanted to put together a rendezvous to bring different historical groups and re-enactors together, which is something he has done at other times as he is involved in a fellowship outreach program at the Assembly of God called the Royal Rangers.

"It was a natural for me to say `Hey, I can do this,'" he said.

He went around the community to get donations for food, ice and other things needed to put on the event.

"It has been fun," Dostal said. "At different times (on Saturday), I saw well over 100 people in the park at any one time here enjoying this event.

The First Ohio Light Artillery Battery K fired a cannon throughout the weekend. Demonstrators shot muzzleloaders, built fires with flint and steel, threw tomahawks throwing, demonstrated outdoor games of the period including sticks and hoops, turkey feather kites, ring toss, tic-tac-toe (called knots and crosses), checkers (originally called draughts), chess and others.

Kids were shown how to make beaded necklaces.

A dinner was held Saturday evening of a 20-gallon pot of Stone Soup with everyone pitching in with ingredients. IGA and Westfall Towing donated chicken, lamb and ribs from a local butcher shop. Westfall smoked the meat.

Leftovers were sent to a local church for a Sunday event.

Dostal hopes festival goers gained a sense of history and this area's place in that history.

"This is America's 250th anniversary and I am excited about that and we are getting towards the end of the year and there are not going to be too many more festivals and events to do something," he said. "I would like people to say, "I was a part of America's 250th birthday" at Marietta's Muskingum Park where it all started in the Northwest Territory."

Dostal did counts throughout the day Saturday in the morning, after lunch and in the late afternoon and he estimates there were over 120 people in the park each time. He is estimating they had around 500 or more throughout Saturday.

Steve McFarland of Richmond, Ind., travels and does historical talks in character. He helped demonstrate period games and talked about period cloths, making moccasins and more.

"Saturday, we had a lot of people here and had a really good time," he said. "I have gotten to meet some really wonderful people, share history, share stories and a lot more."

He was joking with people, saying they needed "a housewife." A housewife is what a small sewing kit and about everyone out on the frontier would have one, married or not.

"That opened up a lot of conversation and a lot of laughter," McFarland said. "A lot of people were here in pursuit of knowledge.

"Most people, even the young ones, wanted to learn something. Why this was done or why someone used something. It was amazing"

Stephanie Haney recently moved to Marietta as a traveling nurse and was interested in the local history and wanted to get involved in the local history community.

"I spent most of the weekend down here, helping out and listening," she said. "I think they have done an amazing job, especially with the weather.

"I have seen a lot of kids down here learning about the old days and the old stories and bringing to life some of the things they have learned in school."

She participated in a period church service Sunday morning so people would get the feel of what a traveling minister would have experienced in the frontier.

She liked that different historical periods were represented at the festival so people could experience a variety of things spanning many years from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War period.

"I liked that they had a little bit of the all of the history, instead of it being focused on just one piece," Haney said. "I liked being able to talk to the different history people learning how some things changed over the years and how some things stayed the same."

John Robinson, a minister from Huntsville, Ala., has known Dostal for years and wanted to participate when he found out the festival was happening. He performed the Sunday religious service to show people what traveling ministers did and how they interacted with people.

He was talking to people about the outfits he was wearing, items around the camps and more.

“This is a great place for history,” he said, adding they were busy with people from 9 a.m. To around 3 p.m. Saturday. “I was still impressed by the crowd that did come out.

“They all had questions about what we were doing.”

With a number of different eras represented, it was not uncommon to see someone in colonial costume standing next to a mountain man fur trader in full buckskin, which gave different historical periods to learn about.

“This is a celebration for America which is the reason for this event," Robinson said.

Many of the participants would like to see the festival become an annual event.

"I think there are a lot of opportunities for it," McFarland said. "This type of event only grows by their support.

"Even if they don't come and buy anything. They just need to come and see. If you come and see, you will find something amazing, something enlightening and something exciting."

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