Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Media inquiries: Please contact Dave Neudeck, dave.neudeck@dcr.virginia.gov, 804-786-5053.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: April 25, 2013
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Wilderness Road State Park hosts Raid at Martin's Station May 10-12
Ewing, VA - More than 450 re-enactors, merchants, artists and artisans bring history to life during the "Raid at Martin's Station" May 10-12 at Wilderness Road State Park. Activities are scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. There is also special program beginning at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children 6-12. Children under six years old are free.
Historic Martin's Station is the re-creation of Captain Joseph Martin's fort originally built in 1775. The fort was near present-day Rose Hill, Va., and played a key role in the settlement of the American frontier and westward expansion during the years before and after the American Revolution. Wilderness Road State Park is managed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
"This place is 50 miles in advance of the frontier and on the road to Kentucky," William Martin wrote of the fort in 1776, the year "the great Cherokee war broke out, the Cherokees were then a great and powerful people, and their strength unbroken, living not far from Powell's Valley, they commenced a sudden, devastating war, on the whole frontier border."
Visitors will be able to walk through and shop at an 18th-century market fair, visit a Cherokee Indian camp, listen to colonial music and tour Historic Martin's Station. The event features Saturday afternoon and evening raids on Martin's Station by Native American re-enactors. Battles start at 1 and 8:30 p.m.
Throughout the three-day event, world-renowned frontier artists, such as Daniel Jacobus, Doug Hall, Andrew Knez Jr., Dennis Muzzy and Steve White, will sell original works in the visitor center. There will also be free seminars on 18th-century topics conducted by Wallace Gusler, Nadia Dean and Eve Otmar. The Powder Horn Gift Shop will be open, and the 20-minute film "Wilderness Road, Spirit of a Nation" will be playing in the visitor center theatre.
Other activities include:
- On May 11 at10 a.m., the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution will conduct a flag-raising ceremony followed by a wreath-laying at the Wilderness Road Monument.
- On May 12, Mother's Day activities will also take place.
The weekend of events is sponsored by the Friends of Wilderness Road State Park.
Wilderness Road State Park is in Ewing, Va., within two hours of Knoxville, Tenn., Bristol, Va., and Lexington, Ky. For more information contact Wilderness Road at 276-445-3065 or email WildernessRoad@dcr.virginia.gov. Visit the Friends of Wilderness Road at www.historicmartinsstation.com.
For more information Virginia's 35 award-winning state parks, call 800-933-PARK (7275) or visit www.virginiastateparks.gov.
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